Drone maker Skydio hits $2.2B valuation with $230M Series E

Skydio announced Monday that it has raised $230 million in a Series E funding round at a valuation of $2.2 billion. In addition, the largest drone manufacturer in the United States has roped in public safety technology provider Axon as a key partner.

Skydio says it has witnessed 30x growth over the past three years after entering the enterprise and public sector market. The company’s drones are being utilized by every branch of the US Department of Defense, over half of all US State Departments of Transportation, more than 200 public safety agencies in 47 states, and across more than 60 energy utilities.

Overall, Skydio’s enterprise customer base now exceeds 1,200 organizations, fueled by an environment of escalating geo-political tensions with China, the global leader in the civilian drone market.

Read: Skydio drones hit new data security milestone with SOC 2 Type II certification

Skydio, whose core strength is autonomy technology, has raised $562 million to date. Its Series E is led by Linse Capital, with new investors Hercules Capital and Axon also joining in. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Next47, IVP, DoCoMo, NVIDIA, the Walton Family Foundation, and UP.Partners also participated in the round.

“Drones enable the core industries that our civilization runs on — transportation, public safety, energy, construction, communications, defense, and more — to operate more safely and more efficiently, by putting sensors wherever they’re needed and whenever they’re needed, while keeping people safely on the ground,” says Adam Bry, co-founder and CEO of Skydio. “We are still in the early innings of the industry, but we are seeing extraordinary demand globally from organizations addressing needs important to every citizen.”

To meet this demand and support its growing customer base, Skydio has already increased its overall headcount by 40%. The drone maker has also set up new manufacturing facilities in Hayward, Calif., to achieve a 10x increase in its capacity. The company now expects to fill over 150 additional vacancies across its locations.

Today’s funding and expansion news comes on the heels of the announcement of new Skydio Dock and Dock Lite drone-in-a-box systems that can help to completely automate remote drone flights. The company also recently launched a new service to help its enterprise customers secure waivers and exemptions from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for advanced operations.

Read: Skydio software update brings long-awaited Panorama, KeyFrame gimbal roll