Redwood City, Calif. – March 1, 2021 – Skydio, the leading U.S. drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight, today announced it has raised $170 million in Series D funding led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund. This brings total funding raised to over $340 million with a current valuation of over $1 billion. Andreessen Horowitz, which also led the Series A, is joined in this round by existing investors Linse Capital, Next47, and IVP, along with new investor UP.Partners. With the additional capital raised, Skydio will further accelerate product development and global sales expansion to support the rapidly growing demand for its autonomous drone solutions.
“The initial wave of hype around enterprise drones passed many years ago, but we’re now seeing these markets really mature. Autonomy is the key for drones to reach scale, and Skydio has established themselves as the defining company in this category. We’re excited to continue to invest in this magical combination of breakthrough technology, rapid growth, and an incredible team in a market that’s going through an inflection point,” said David Ulevitch, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
"From the moment we met the Skydio team and saw the S2 in action, we knew this was going to be a world-changing company. Think of all the dangerous jobs requiring ladders, harnesses, or helicopters to do work that can now, with Skydio, be done much more safely and efficiently. Autonomous drones will enable our aging infrastructure to be monitored much more effectively and our first responders will have greater situational awareness than ever before," said Bastiaan Janmaat, Partner at Linse Capital.
Over the last year Skydio has made significant progress in every market category. From the continued adoption of Skydio 2 by consumers, to the largest ever enterprise drone deal with EagleView for residential roof inspection, to the down-selection for final integration as part of the Army Short Range Reconnaissance Program, Skydio has been chosen in a myriad of deployments across construction companies, departments of transportation, energy utilities, and police departments. Leading enterprises and public sector organizations, including Jacobs Engineering, Sundt Construction, the US Civil Air Patrol, Ohio Department of Transportation, North Carolina Department of Transportation, Boston PD, and Sacramento Metro Fire Department, rely on Skydio autonomous drones for infrastructure inspection, search and rescue, situational awareness, emergency response and many more use cases.
“This is an important milestone for us as a company, but also for the U.S. drone industry. Together with our customers, we’re proving that a U.S. company can lead the way in this industry through AI and autonomy. Things are already pretty exciting, but we are just scratching the surface of what autonomous drones can do,” said Adam Bry, CEO and Co-founder of Skydio.
Skydio is founded on the premise that autonomy is the key ingredient to unlock the full potential of drones. By transforming drones into intelligent devices that can dynamically understand and adjust to the environment in which they are operated, Skydio enables radically simpler flights and makes missions once considered impossible possible. The introduction of the Skydio 2 in 2019 marked the beginning of an ambitious innovation agenda to take drones into the age of software and AI-based autonomy that will further accelerate in 2021 with the upcoming release of the new Skydio X2, recipient of CES’s 2021 Best of Innovation Award, and Skydio 3D Scan, the first-of-its-kind adaptive scanning software.
To learn more:
Company
Product videos
Skydio X2D: Ready for Duty Series
Customers Stories
Autonomous Drones for Construction: A Case Study
U.S. Autonomous Drone Maker Skydio Grows Momentum in Japan’s enterprise Market
Part 107 Drone Operator Switches from DJI to Skydio and Increases Per-Pilot Revenue 37%
Skydio 2 in Action. First Responder Deployments Show the Power of Drone Autonomy
About Skydio
Skydio is the leading U.S. drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight. Skydio leverages breakthrough AI to create the world’s most intelligent flying machines for use by consumer, enterprise, and government customers. Founded in 2014, Skydio is made up of leading experts in AI, robotics, cameras, and electric vehicles from top companies, research labs, and universities from around the world. Skydio designs, assembles, and supports its products in the U.S. from its headquarters in Redwood City, CA, and has been selected as Trusted Drone Provider for U.S. Federal Government as part of the Defense Innovation Unit’s Blue sUAS Project. Skydio is trusted by leading enterprises across a wide range of industry sectors and is backed by top investors and strategic partners including Andreessen Horowitz, Linse Capital, Next47, IVP, Playground, NVIDIA, and UP.Partners.
About Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. The firm is stage agnostic, investing in seed to late-stage technology companies, across the consumer, enterprise, bio/healthcare, crypto, and fintech spaces. a16z has more than $16 billion in assets under management across multiple funds. See portfolio companies here.
About Linse Capital
Linse Capital is a growth equity firm focused on late stage technology companies in transportation, logistics and energy. The firm takes a highly concentrated approach, investing in and working with only a handful of companies at any moment in time. Linse Capital backs companies leading the charge in multi-decade industry shifts, such as vehicle electrification, energy efficiency, drones and air mobility, and space technology.
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