San Francisco-based software company DroneDeploy announced Thursday that it raised $50 million in new financing. The Series E was led by Energize Ventures and AirTree.
Due to social distancing measures, an increasing number of companies are relying on drones to get a peek of job sites in progress. DroneDeploy’s enterprise software powers drones that collect and analyze visual data from job sites, operations and assets. The software allows for users to view said data in real time.
DroneDeploy’s tech has been used across a wide variety of industries to inspect everything from oil wellheads to sprawling vineyards.
“We see two powerful tailwinds. Enterprise use of drones is exploding,” Mike Winn, co-founder and CEO of DroneDeploy, said in a statement. “At the same time, companies are digitizing their sites inside and out, creating full digital twins of their assets.”
Over the past year, DroneDeploy has made several changes to keep up with the rapid digitization of industries across the globe. The company updated its drone software with the ability to capture and analyze images from ground-based cameras operated by people.
Following the latest investment, DroneDeploy plans to make its software compatible with image-capturing robots that roam the ground. The fresh capital will also help the company accelerate its expansion into Europe and explore future opportunities for strategic acquisitions.
The company is now hiring for dozens of remote roles to support its growth efforts. Open positions span its engineering, sales and customer experience departments.
In addition to the funding, the company announced updates to its 360 Walkthrough and Vertical Flight tools. The first aims to bring full site documentation into one platform. The company’s 360 Walkthrough enables enterprises to capture interior and exterior images of a building via drone for virtual tours accessible via desktop or DroneDeploy’s mobile app.
Vertical Flight aims to capture areas that traditional top-down photography might not be able to. The tool also offers enterprises a chance to view potential flight paths before take-off. Using the tool, businesses have the ability to enter the dimensions of a building in progress and adjust the path of their drone flight as they see fit.
Additional investors Bessemer, Scale, Emergence and Angelpad participated in the round, among others.
Bessemer led the company’s $35 million Series D last November. DroneDeploy has raised $142 million in financing to date, according to the company.
