Autonomous drone startup Skydio rises $100 million and launches the X2 commercial drone

July 14, 2020
This new funding will help the drone maker move faster on its product development efforts, Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunch.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., - Skydio has raised a $100 million Series C funding round, which was led by Next47 and includes participation from other new investors Levitate Capital and NTT DOCOMO Ventures, as well as existing investors A16Z, IVP and Playground. This new funding will help the drone maker move faster on its product development efforts, and expand its go-to-market strategy to cover not only consumer applications, but also enterprise and public sector drone technology, the company says. To serve the market, Skydio also launched the X2 family of drone hardware today, which is designed for commercial use, Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunchContinue reading original article.

The Intelligent Aerospace take:

July 14, 2020 - The U.S. and China have been in a technological cold war as Beijing and Washington have barred technologies from each other's countries from being used by government citing spying concerns. China's DJI company is a world leader in unmanned aereal systems, but American start-up Skydio looks to make a splash in the sector. Skydio was founded in 2014 and has recently announced raising $100 million in investment for its autonomous enterprise and public sector drone technology.

"Manual drones lack the software intelligence that enterprises need to scale their programs” said Adam Bry, Skydio CEO. "Skydio’s goal is to unlock the value of drones by creating a radically simple user experience through the power of true autonomy. With Skydio 2 (S2) we’ve proven that our autonomy software can fundamentally change the way people use drones, and that an American company can not only compete, but can lead the way in AI-powered drone technology. We are now bringing the power of autonomy to enterprises, government agencies, first responders, and defense customers."

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Related: DJI equipping new consumer drones with airplane and helicopter detectors

Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace

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