Vol 17 - $21.5m in funding rounds, C-level appointment, NP launches & award winning drone logistics platform
We're back with the 17th edition of #DroneZone, presented by Airbotics Talent, the weekly newsletter dedicated to all things drones!
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Each week we’ll bring you the latest developments, trends, and insights in the world of drones and UAS. We cover a multitude of applications including:
📨 Delivery & Logistics 💊 Medical 🚑 Disaster Relief and Search & Rescue 🌱Agriculture 🗾 Surveying & Mapping 🔬 Inspection 📷 Photography & Videography 🚀 Defense
Company of the Week
Drones and robots are being increasingly utilized for inspections across a range of applications and sectors include wind turbine inspection, solar, industrial, energies, oil & gas and offshore amongst others. Players in this field from a drone perspective include the likes of Voliro , Skygauge Robotics and Perceptual Robotics whilst Waygate Technologies and Gecko Robotics are seeing significant market share using wall climbing robots.
The benefits for using these technologies are clear - high volume and ultra accurate data collection, collected quicker than traditional methods and without the human risk element. Many can also operate autonomously, 24/7 and save businesses millions of dollars. And for this reason, many of these companies are finding themselves attracting large investment from VC and PE backers.
With this in mind, this weeks Company of the Week goes to Thread, the autonomous inspection data collection business.
Check out the video below for more insight on the business
Last week they successfully raised $15m in Series A funding. Utilising drones to enhance the speed of collection and better disseminate data collected in critical infrastructure inspection is central to Thread's offering, pulled together by their cloud platform UNITI
Founder and CEO Joshua R. stated
"𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝐴 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑠 𝑢𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟’𝑠 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑎𝑝 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑐𝑦 𝑜𝑛𝑒-𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙-𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑡 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑎, 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑔𝑒. 𝑊𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠, 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑈𝑁𝐼𝑇𝐼 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛-𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑂&𝑀 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛".
I'll be closely watching how they deploy the capital to further grow their operations and continue to innovate in this rapidly growing field.
The Latest in Drones News
🚁 Swiss confined space inspections specialists Flyability launched their new Surveying Payload at INTERGEO Expo and Conference last week. In partnership with FARO INSIGHT , the Ouster OS0-128 Rev 7 payload was revealed with specifications including improved accuracy, wide scope, higher point density and upgraded photon sensitivity. Flyability Co-Founder and CTO Adrien Briod stated,
“The new Surveying Payload is a great step forward in enhancing the data quality achievable with a drone survey. We’re especially excited because this is a second payload for the Elios 3 and supports our long-term vision of routine drone inspections with minimal hardware turnover”
🚁 Guardian Agriculture announced the appointment of Leif Jentoft as Chief Product Officer, further enhancing their leadership team following their Series A raise in June . Leif comes with an extensive background in robotics and was previously Co-Founder and Board Member of Massachusetts based robotics arm manufacturer RightHand Robotics, Inc . Congratulations to both Leif and Guardian 👏
🚁 Last week Aerodome confirmed the close of a $6.5m seed round lead by 2048 Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz . The New York based business utilize a fully integrated Drone as First Responder (DFR) platform including hardware, AI driven software and OS, DIAB solution allowing for automated charging. The fast response time versus traditional methods makes this technology so impactful, as explained by CEO Rahul Sidhu ,
"𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑓 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑, 𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑠, 𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟-𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒".
🚁 Skyports Drone Services have partnered with drone logistics hardware business RigiTech to create a delivery network in South Korea. The partnership will see the duo launch an app and provide consumer deliveries such as food, pharmaceutical and vital supplies to hard to reach areas. Adam Klaptocz , RigiTech CEO commented,
“𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 – 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑. 𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑐ℎ𝑛𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑦𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑐 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑-𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑌𝑒𝑜𝑠𝑢 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝑊𝑒’𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑘𝑦𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠’ 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑙𝑒𝑒𝑡, 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑢𝑠ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑉𝐿𝑂𝑆 𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔”.
🚁 Virginia-based smart airspace security company Dedrone have announced the launch of their Drone as First Responder (DFR) solution. Their platform, powered by their AI, Dedrone Beyond, is modelled to support law enforcement and emergency services conduct BVLOS operations, utilizing drones as first responders. Aaditya (AD) D. , CEO of Dedrone discussed
“𝐷𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑟𝑑𝑠-𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛; 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑎𝑤 𝑒𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙. 𝑇𝑜𝑑𝑎𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑒. 𝐷𝑒𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑒𝐵𝑒𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑢𝑛𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑎𝑤 𝑒𝑛𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝐷𝐹𝑅 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑠”.
🚁 The GENIUS NY accelerator came to a conclusion which saw Michigan based cargo drone business blueflite lift the award and take home the $1m grand prize. Huge congratulations to CEO Frank Noppel, CTO James McClearen and the rest of the blueflite team!
“𝐵𝑙𝑢𝑒𝑓𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝐺𝐸𝑁𝐼𝑈𝑆 𝑁𝑌 $1𝑀 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑧𝑒, 𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐶𝐸𝑂. 𝑊𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑘𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑌𝑜𝑟𝑘. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐺𝐸𝑁𝐼𝑈𝑆 𝑁𝑌 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑦, 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒.”
Fleet management and airspace authorizations business Aloft also received investment, to the sum of $500,000, after Founder Joshua Ziering 's 5 minute pitch won the Accelerator Pitch Competition 🙌
That's all for this week's edition #DroneZone! We hope you enjoyed reading about the latest trends, news, and insights from the world of drones. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter via LinkedIn or Email and follow the hashtag #DroneZone to receive all the latest updates 📩
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