The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to green-light commercial drone use earlier this year appears to be spurring the deployment of even more capital into the fledgling sector.
The latest beneficiary is CyPhy Works, the Danvers, MA-based drone startup founded by iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner. CyPhy announced a $22 million Series B round today led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Draper Nexus, and UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, UPS’s investment arm. CyPhy previously raised $7 million in 2013.
Drone startups are hot. In Q2’15 funding reached an all-time high and in Q3’15 we’ve already seen Series B fundings to two drone startups: SkyCatch, which raised $22.1M from Avalon Ventures and Riverwood Capital; and EHANG, which raised $42M from GGV Capital, GP Capital, and others. We’ve identified 10 more early-stage drone startups that are likely to raise in the next 12 months.
All these companies have raised in 2014 or 2015 year-to-date, have less than $15M in total funding, and show other positive metrics, including high investor quality or recent news mentions.
Intel just announced a more than $60 million investment into Shanghai-based drone maker Yuneec. The news comes the same week that fellow Chinese drone company Ehang raised $42 million, and Sony unveiled its own drone prototype due out in early 2016.
For some construction workers, any thoughts of slacking off could soon seem rather quaint. The drones will almost certainly notice.
The workers building a lavish new downtown stadium for the Sacramento Kings in California are being monitored by aerial drones and software that can automatically flag slow progress.
The buzz surrounding Sony’s unveiling of a drone prototype Monday — the fruit of a joint venture called Aerosense between Sony and Tokyo-based startup ZMP — was the latest sign that the company’s turnaround attempts are continuing to gain traction in the markets.
Just last month, Sony reported that profits tripled in Q1 after six years of losses. A renewed focus on its chip sensors and video games business seems to be paying off.
A tiny artificial eye inspired by the vision systems of insects could help small flying drones navigate their surroundings well enough to avoid collisions while buzzing around in confined, cluttered spaces—a key step in making these small autonomous flying vehicles practical.
Un Embraer ERJ-195 de la compañía alemana Lufthansa con 108 personas a bordo estuvo a punto de colisionar este lunes con un dron mientras realizaba las maniobras de aproximación al aeropuerto Chopin de Varsovia, el más grande de la capital polaca.
Quizás la referencia más destacada en Euskadi en el campo de los drones y sus casi ilimitadas posibilidades sea Erle Robotics, de los que ya hablamos hace un año como una de las interesantes start-ups vasca de hardware. Por cierto, el nombre tiene su miga puesto que erle significa abeja en euskera y drone significa zángano (abeja macho) en inglés.
2015 is shaping up to be a breakout year for drone investment, as drone startups have already raised $172M in equity financing this year – more than the previous three years combined.
Italy, France and Germany agreed on Monday to develop a European drone programme for reconnaissance and surveillance, seeking to inject momentum into a proposal first considered in 2013 to reduce reliance on U.S. and Israeli technology.
In a joint signing ceremony, the defence ministers of the three countries pledged a two-year study to lay the basis for a European drone to be operating by 2025 and said Spain and Poland had expressed interest in joining the plan.
The scheme for a pilotless aircraft built by the three EU powers could be worth up to a billion eurosif it gets airborne, officials said after the deal was signed in Brussels.
