BlueRun Ventures China has led a US$32.5 million series C round in Airobotics, an Israeli manufacturer of fully automated industrial drones, with participation from Microsoft Ventures, crowdfunding platform OurCrowd.com and an unnamed strategic investor.
Existing investors venture capital firm CRV, BlueRun Ventures, navigation app Waze’s founder Noam Bardin, former Google Advanced Technology and Projects group’s chief operating officer Richard Wooldridge, and Silver Lake Partner’s co-founder David Roux, also participated in the round, according to a company announcement.
Founded in 2014, Airobotics has developed fully automated end-to-end drone solutions, which can be used for collecting data and gaining aerial insights. It targets industries such as mining, seaport monitoring, oil and gas.
The global market revenue generated by personal and commercial drones will reach US$6 billion this year, up 34% year-on-year, and it is expected to grow to more than US$11.2 billion by 2020, according to Gartner Inc.
China’s Dajiang Innovations Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is currently the dominant player in the personal drone market, while competition in the commercial drone industry is heating up with Airbus SE launching an unmanned aerial vehicles unit, Airbus Aerial, earlier this year.
Airobotics is the first company in the world to be granted authorization to fly fully automated drones without a pilot, as licensed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel, positioning the company as a world-leader in the field of automated drones.
“We are thrilled to lead this round of investment,” said Jiajie Wu, executive director at BlueRun Ventures China. “Airobotics is a game changer which has successfully matched revolutionary drone technologies with real industrial needs. In addition to its existing customer base in Western countries, we believe Airobotics will see substantial opportunities in Asia, which is one of the world’s largest industrial markets.”
The start-up previously raised a US$28.5 combined series A and series B round led by BlueRun Ventures and CRV. It plans to use the latest proceeds to expand its hold in industrial facilities such as mine sites, refineries, seaports, oil and gas facilities and more.
It also unveiled its new Homeland Security and Defense division, as well as its new “Airobotics Safe Cities” initiative, using fully automated drones to perform emergency critical applications in cities.
Source: China Money Network
