California startup Firestorm Labs has gotten another big boost in its efforts to scale fast production of high performance drones using 3D printing, with a $12.5 million infusion led by Lockheed Martin’s venture capital unit.
Clashing priorities of personal privacy, collective security, use of unpopular surveillance applications, and respect of federal airspace regulations are inflaming tempers in one Saint Louis neighborhood, whose resident are fighting to prevent an outside crime fighting advocate from using drones as for-hire aerial watch dogs.
If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. That, apparently, is the attitude of Brussels Airport, which has taken a 50% stake in a specialized service startup that provides safe and efficient operation of the very drones currently banned in the air around Belgium’s busiest aviation hub.
California-based drone startup TraceAir has raised $3.5 million in its series A funding round led by London-based XTX Ventures. The company’s construction site development acceleration platform utilizes drones to survey and create 3D maps of projects.
An Israeli startup hopes to one day be flying missions in Africa, delivering on-demand medical supplies to remote areas. And it has a unique drone to carry out that work.
Dutch drone startup, Avular, raised $1,8 million to grow their commercial drone business. The Eindhoven-based company develops industrial unmanned aerial devices as well as other robotics and positioning systems. Since their start in 2014, the company had been mostly focussed on the agricultural and inspection sectors, but now they are looking to expand their business with the new funding. At the heart of their company is the modular drone platform, the Aerial Curiosity, that allows their customers to quickly develop a drone for custom applications without having to build the unmanned aerial device from scratch.