It was a busy and abundant year for seed, crowd, series A,B,C,D and VC funding of robotics-related startups. 128 companies got funded, some multiple times. $1.95 billion, 50% more than 2015 which was also a phenomenal year with over $1.32 billion funded.
25 unmanned aerial systems companies got the biggest number of fundings followed by 15 agricultural robotics startups, service robotics for businesses, service robots for personal use, vision systems providers, self-driving systems and mobile robotics and AGVs companies, plus a whole bunch of smaller categories.
In monthly recaps by The Robot Report, fundings grew until they peaked in August and then dipped in December.
Investments in robotic solutions for the ag industry were noted by Rob Leclerc of AgFunder who said:
“The number of deals grew 7% year-over-year, as we recorded 307 deals this half compared to 286 during the first half of 2015. The number of investors coming into the sector climbed 52% from 280 in the first half of 2015 compared with 425 in the first half of 2016, which suggests that investors are getting more comfortable with the sector.”
Companies Funded in 2016
| Zipline Intl | 43.8 | A San Francisco-based meds drone delivery service startup, raised another $25 million (in Nov) in its B round from Visionaire Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, Jerry Wang, Sequoia Capital and Subtraction Capital. It raised $800k from UPS and $18 million from Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and others to develop their small robot airplane designed to carry vaccines, medicine and blood to remote areas where health workers place text orders for what they need. |
| Airware | 30.0 | The San Francisco UAS autopilot maker, got $30 million in a round that included former Cisco CEO John Chambers as an investor. Chambers will join the Airware board of directors. |
| Airobotics | 28.5 | An Israeli UAS startup (not to be confused with AI-Robotics, a Beijing startup), received an additional $6 million in a combined Series A and B round concluded in June where they got $22.5 million. Backers included BlueRun Ventures, CRV, UpWest Lab as well as private individuals such as Noam Bardin, the CEO of Waze, and Richard Wooldridge, COO of Facebook. Airobotics provides an on-site and on-demand automated drone platform that allows companies to run missions to monitor, inspect, survey and secure large industrial facilities and other strategic sites via aerial data collection, processing and analysis. The company currently has a team of 120 people. |
| 3D Robotics | 26.7 | Filed an SEC Notice for a $45 million offering of which $26.7 million had been raised as of the date of filing. Autodesk was an investor and said that 3DR is using their Autodesk Forge Platform “to develop one of the industry’s most trusted aerial data capture and analytics platforms for enterprise field professionals within infrastructure, construction, survey, mapping, telecom, and energy industries.” |
| Skydio | 25.0 | A Silicon Valley drone vision and navigation systems provider, got $25 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Accel, a Palo Alto VC. |
| Shenzhen Flypro Aerospace | 23.0 | A Chinese startup, got around $23 million in a B round from Shenzhen Capital Group. FLYPRO produces two types of quadcopters: a racing drone and a camera drone. |
| Zero Zero Robotics | 23.0 | A Beijing-based startup, raised $23 million in a Series A round. Backers included IDG, GSR Ventures, ZhenFund, Zuig and others. Zero Zero offers a Hover Camera, a portable autonomous flying indoor or outdoor camera system, a neat fold-over book-like device. |
| Mavrx | 22.4 | A San Francisco-based developer of aerial imagery technologies focused on the ag industry and big data, secured $12.42 million of a Series A round, and an additional $10M for the same Series A round led by Eclipse with Bloomberg Beta and Visionnair Ventures, according to a regulatory filing. |
| DronDeploy | 20.0 | A San Francisco-based startup raised $20 million to (1) grow their drone data management platform and (2) for hiring, product development, sales and marketing. Scale Venture Partners led the investment and was joined by High Alpha Fund. The DroneDeploy platform allows users to plan flights, pilot drones either one at a time or in fleet formations, and gather and analyze myriad data types to create detailed maps and 3-D models. |
| Precision Hawk | 19.0 | Raised $19+ million in a Series C round of venture funding to focus their effort toward a wide range of commercial purposes. PrecisionHawk is the maker of the Lancaster fixed-wing drones for farmers. New investors include: Verizon Ventures, USAA, NTT Docomo Ventures, Yamaha Motor Ventures, and Dupont Pioneer, the ag division of Dupont. |
| Farmers Edge | 18.3 | A Canadian precision ag data consolidator/integrator startup, has raised another $18.3 million – the 3rd raise in 2016 although the first two amounts were undisclosed. This time the round was led by Sustainable Dev Tech Canada (SDTC) with $6.1 and the remaining $12.2 coming from unidentified sources and existing partners. These new funds are earmarked to help the company reduce fertilizer, water and pesticide in their next generation of h/w, s/w and agronomic decision support systems. |
| Drone Racing League | 17.6 | A NY startup establishing a drone racing community and sporting events, raised $12 million in VC funding co-led by Lux Capital and RSE Ventures. Other backers include MGM, Sky Prosieben, Hearst Ventures, CAA Ventures, Vayner/RSE, Courtside Ventures, Sierra Maya Ventures and individual angels. Earlier in the year they got $5.6 million from RSE Ventures. |
| Oryx Vision | 17.0 | An Israel-based developer of solid state depth sensing solutions for autonomous vehicles, has raised $17 million in Series A funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, and was joined by Maniv Mobility and Trucks VC. |
| Kespry | 16.0 | A Menlo Park developer of automated drone systems for commercial use, raised $16 million in Series B funding. DCM Ventures led the round, and was joined by a group of VCs and individuals. |
| Airmap | 15.0 | A Santa Monica, CA provider of airspace info for airports and drone operators, got $15 million for a Series A funding led by General Catalyst Partners. |
| Chronocam | 15.0 | A French startup developing bio-inspired vision systems for autonomous vehicles, received $15 million in a Series B round led by Intel Capital, Renault, 360 Capital Partners, iBionext Growth Fund, and Robert Bosch Venture Capital. |
| Delair-tech | 14.5 | a French UAS startup, got $14.5 million from Andromède, a French VC. Later in 2016 Delair acquired Gatewing from Trimble. Read more. |
| SimToo | 13.6 | A Shenzhen-based UAS startup, raised around $13.6 million in a Series B round led by Renmin Group, Duoniu Media, Lanhai Ark and Hanjing Family Office, all Chinese VCs. SimToo makes a foldable follow-me hands free camera quadcopter called a Dragonfly. Priced at $443, Dragonfly has sold over 20,000 units via online and offline channels and the company expects to realize a profit this year. |
| Dedrone | 10.0 | A German startup whose DroneTracker drone detection platform, raised $10 million in a Series A funding from a series of EU and Silicon Valley VCs. In just 15 months, Dedrone has grown to more than 40 employees and 100 distributors in over 50 countries. |
| GreenValley Intl | 10.0 | Renamed from True Reality Geospatial, a provider of satellite and drone data and analytics, raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Northern Light Ventures and including SF Investments. |
| Sentera | 8.5 | A Minneapolis-based integrator of aerial data and analytics software, raised $8.5M in a venture capital round with a group of undisclosed strategic investors. |
| Hangar Technology | 6.5 | An Austin, Texas-based developer of autonomous data capture using drone technology, has raised $6.5 million in seed funding led by Lux Capital. Hangar is presently in hiring mode and beta testing its drone photography on real estate sites. |
| PRENAV | 6.5 | A Silicon Valley unmanned aerial systems startup, raised $6.5 million in seed financing from lead investor Crosslink Capital, along with Haystack, Liquid 2 Ventures, WI Harper Group and investors Pear Ventures, Toivo Annus, and a number of other investors. |
| ACSL | 6.4 | (Autonomous Control Systems Lab), a Chiba University spinoff, is a robot-, drone- and map-making startup which raised $6.4 million from UTEC and Rakuten (a snack and drink provider). Funds will be used to scale up to handle delivering drinks and snacks on golf courses by drone. |
| Sky-Futures | 5.7 | Got $5.7 million in a series A funding from the Bristow Group and MMC Ventures. Sky-Futures is a drone inspection service for the oil and gas industry. |
| uAvionix | 5.0 | A Palo Alto-based developer of aviation communication, navigation and real-time sense and avoid systems, raised $5 million in Series A funding led by Playground Global, the VC firm headed by Andy Rubin of Android and Google’s robot acquisitions fame. |
| Flyability | 4.3 | Got $4.3 million from a Series A funding from MKS Alternative Investments, Go Beyond Investing, and Environmental Technologies Fund. Flyability, a Swiss startup, develops Gimball, a collision-proof drone for new applications in inspection, rescue and security. |
| Uvify | 4.0 | A Korean drone startup, got $4 million from KCube Ventures and NCsoft. |
| Gamaya | 3.2 | A Swiss aerial analytics spin-off from the Swiss EPFL, raised $3.2 million in a Series A funding. Funds will be used to develop their new 40 bands of light hyperspectral imaging sensor and analytics software platform (traditional multi-spectral sensors have 4 bands). |
| SkySafe | 3.0 | A San Diego startup whose technology can disable drones that are flying where they shouldn’t, raised $3 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation from Founder Collective and SV Angel. The FAA estimates there will be 2.5 million drones sold in the U.S. alone just this year, hence the need to establish boundaries and identify and perhaps disable those that trespass. |
| Cyberhawk | 2.9 | Raised $2.9 million in financing to enable UK-based Cyberhawk to expand its commercial development of the drone-captured data inspection market for the oil & gas industry and infrastructure markets. |
Author:
Frank Tobe
Editor/Publisher
The Robot Report
Global Map
Tracking the business of robotics
Analyst and Co-founder
Defining the universe of robotics and automation for investors
For the full report covering 128 robotic startups click here.