the global maintenance marketplace for commercial Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft, announced today new strategic funding from Hearst Ventures to support continued growth and product development.
Hearst Ventures is the global venture capital division of Hearst, one of the nation’s largest diversified media and information companies. Founded in 1995, the group has grown to become one of the most active and successful corporate venture funds with more than $1 billion invested to date. Notable investments include Pandora, Roku, XM Satellite Radio, SparkCognition, FreightWaves, Via, Drone Racing League, Otonomo, Dronebase, Zendrive, Ridecell, Truepic, Spartan Race and Buzzfeed.
“Hearst Ventures is a powerful partner for Robotic Skies,” said Brad Hayden, Founder and CEO. “We are joining the robust ecosystem of Hearst’s investment portfolio — companies that are leaders in the high tech, artificial intelligence, and drone markets. We are proud to be counted among these industry innovators.”
“We’re excited to support Robotic Skies’ mission to be the maintenance network for the next generation of aviation” said David Famolari, Managing Director at Hearst Ventures. “Aviation is witnessing a Cambrian explosion of innovation and use cases across manned and unmanned platforms with the potential to introduce orders of magnitude more certified aircraft at orders of magnitude lower cost. Much as cheap ubiquitous PCs signaled a transition from the mainframe era and created the modern IT support industry, these next generation aircraft signal a similar transition within the aviation maintenance industry. Robotic Skies is working with the aviation community of regulators, standards bodies, service centers, manufacturers and operators to adapt, scale and distribute certified maintenance and support for next-generation aircraft across the globe.”
The Robotic Skies business model is shaped by the direction of commercial drone policy and legislation in the United States and of other Civil Aviation Authorities worldwide toward requirements for certified maintenance solutions that ensure safety and ongoing airworthiness of unmanned aircraft.
The company’s expansive international network of repair stations has positioned Robotic Skies to respond to the forecast volume of commercial drones and advanced air mobility aircraft that will require certified maintenance support. The Robotic Skies field support infrastructure includes over 235 independently owned and operated FAA Part 145 repair stations, and their equivalents outside USA, to serve customers across 50 countries.
Source: Press Release