Mere months after closing a $12.5 million Series C round, DroneBase, a California-based drone data collection and analytics startup, has raised $20 million in growth funding. The funding is being deployed across product development, international expansion, and go-to-market business units, with the company looking to hire at least 35 additional full-time employees by 2022.
Founded in 2014, DroneBase is focused on providing fast, affordable, and reliable drone data and analytics to renewable energy, property, insurance, and construction sectors. Last year, the company opened its first international office in Germany. Today, it claims to manage the world’s largest network of crewed and uncrewed aircraft operators in the world, totaling over 80,000 pilots across 70 countries.
These pilots have captured high-resolution photos of wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean, taken stock of commercial real estate complexes after a hurricane in Texas, and flown crewed aircraft to collect thermal data at utility-scale solar farms.
Dan Burton, CEO of DroneBase, shares more on the company’s achievements and goals in a blog post:
This year, we’ve added top talent to our team and expanded into Europe. While we have done over 37GW of renewable energy inspections to date, this growth funding enables us to dramatically increase those numbers, scaling to meet the needs of the renewables industry. The bottom line is we intend to meet our global clients’ needs in one comprehensive solution that spans data analysis and capture.
DroneBase’s latest funding round was led by Euclidean Capital. The round also saw participation from previous investors, including Union Square Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Energy Transition Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and Valor Equity Partners.
Explaining why his firm decided to bet big on DroneBase, Ashvin Chhabra, President and Chief Investment Officer of Euclidean Capital provides a critical view of the commercial drone industry:
We’ve seen a significant shift in the intelligent imaging industry in the last six months; the industry has consolidated with several companies unable to compete globally or unable to find the right combination of software and deep vertical expertise. We chose to invest in DroneBase because the company has a unique operational and software approach that creates value for companies with high-value assets in multiple industries, such as renewable energy, insurance, commercial real estate, and construction.
Also read: How to make $100K in revenue as a commercial drone pilot
Craig Lawrence, partner at Energy Transition Ventures, adds:
The solar market is on a fast track to rapid growth, driven by the demands of net-zero commitments. The industry absolutely requires advanced data capture and analytics to continue to scale. Intelligent software and services provided by Dronebase will help improve system generation and enable renewable energy market leaders to continue to grow rapidly
Read more: Connecticut drone maker lays off 33 employees, blames ‘manufacturing crisis’
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