Mon, May 20, 2013
$10.7M New Funding Advances Mission To Provide A Universal Platform For The Safe, Reliable Operation Of Drones For Commercial Use
Airware, creators of a universal development platform for commercial drones, has secured a $10.7 million Series A round of financing. The funding will enable Airware to meet increasing customer demand in the rapidly growing global market of commercially-operated drones. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with Google Ventures also participating. Chris Dixon, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will join the company’s board.
“Airware’s technology fulfills an immense need for a universal operating system and platform enabling the use of drones for commercial enterprises, which we believe is a global market with huge potential,” said Airware founder and CEO Jonathan Downey. “This funding and the addition of Chris to our board will allow us to continue to expand our team, meet existing customer and market demand and scale for future growth.”
Airware says it "democratizes" the use of drones without compromising safety for companies of all sizes, from small start-ups to big corporations and non-profit organizations. Airware is currently integrating their technology into drones produced by commercial companies for uses including the prevention of rhino poaching in Kenya, vaccine delivery to remote areas in Africa and Southeast Asia, skier search and rescue, and open air mining operations in France.
“As investors, we try to back brilliant founders pursuing audacious ideas,” said Chris Dixon, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “Robotics has long been a field that overpromised and under delivered. We think drones are the most likely way to rectify that, and Jonathan is the person to make it happen.”
Airware is a graduate of both Lemnos Labs and Y Combinator incubators. Previous to the Series A round, Airware raised seed financing from First Round Capital, Firelake Capital, RRE Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Promus Ventures and several Y Combinator partners.
More News
Runway Lead-in Light System Runway Lead-in Light System Consists of one or more series of flashing lights installed at or near ground level that provides positive visual guidance a>[...]
Aero Linx: Aviation Without Borders Aviation Without Borders uses its aviation expertise, contacts and partnerships to enable support for children and their families – at hom>[...]
Dave Juwel's Aviation Marketing Stories ITBOA BNITBOB ... what does that mean? It's not gibberish, it's a lengthy acronym for "In The Business Of Aviation ... But Not In The Busine>[...]
From 2010 (YouTube Version): Yeah.... This IS A Really Cool Job When ANN's Nathan Cremisino took over the lead of our Aero-TV teams, he knew he was in for some extra work and a lot>[...]
Also: Junkers A50 Heritage, Montaer Grows, Dynon-Advance Flight Systems, Vans' Latest Officially, the Carbon Cub UL and Rotax 916 iS is now in its 'market survey development phase'>[...]
ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.24.24): Runway Lead-in Light System
See All