- Skydio is a drone startup.
- The company raises $100 million, bringing its total value raised to $170 million.
- Skydio X2E, which targets enterprises, first responders, and civilian agencies.
Redwood City-based drone startup Skydio today revealed it raised $100 million, bringing its total raised to $170 million. Coinciding with the fundraising, Skydio unveiled a new family of drones — X2. The software solutions designed to simplify inspections and enterprise-oriented workflows. Skydio uses artificial intelligence to create flying drones that are used by consumers, enterprises, and government customers.
Skydio is a drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight. The company leverages AI to create intelligent flying machines for use by consumers, enterprises, and government customers.
Skydio Raises $170 Million
Skydio has raised $170 million in a Series D funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund. That pushes it into unicorn territory, with $340 million in total funding and a post-money valuation north of $1 billion. Skydio’s fresh capital comes on the heels of its expansion last year into the enterprise market. It intends to use the considerable pile of cash to help it expand globally and accelerate product development.
16z previously led Skydio’s Series A round. Other investors who participated in this Series D include Lines Capital, Next47, IVP, and UP. Partners. Skydio announced its $100 million Series C financing, and also debuted the X2, its first dedicated enterprise drone. The company also launched a suite of software for commercial and enterprise customers.
Skydio launches two consumer-focused drones to date
Skydio launches two consumer-focused drones to date, both of which employ artificial intelligence technology to give them autonomous navigation capabilities. This means their drones can actively track objects and people, while simultaneously avoiding potential collisions with objects, including trees, power lines, and other obstacles. The result is a video that looks like it was recorded by a professional film crew in a helicopter, but available to the general consumer market at a sub-$1,000 price point.
It includes an onboard 360-degree superzoom camera, a FLIR 320×256 resolution thermal imaging camera, a battery life of 35 minutes of flying time, and a maximum range of 6.2 miles. There’s also a Skydio Enterprise Controller for the drone, which has a touchscreen, hardware controls, and a protective hood to block glare.
The move from consumer to enterprise makes a lot of sense for Skydio; the same collision avoidance features and easy piloting for which the company has received praise in the consumer world are very applicable in enterprise use. The company says that its close-proximity avoidance tech, which allows for very tight tolerances in flight, make it a great candidate for doing things like remote infrastructure and equipment inspection, where having a person do those would be dangerous or impossible
