Swiss drone company, Flyability, announces that it has raised an additional CHF 15 million (€15.3 million) in a series C funding on top of CHF 7 million (€7.1 million) that it had already closed.
This was led by Japan-based SBI Investment with new investor participation from Cargill and Verve Ventures. Yoshitaka Kitao, the Representative Director, Chairman and President of SBI Investment Co. said ‘Following Flyability’s growth since its previous funding round, we were delighted to have the opportunity to invest in such an exciting business.’
‘The company is growing fast, with close to a thousand customers and offices in the USA, Singapore, China, and Lausanne, due to the traction for our new product platform, the recently-launched Elios 3’ said Patrick Thévoz, co-founder and CEO of Flyability.
Both Cargill and Dow have been key customers and have used Flyability’s inspection technology to keep their workers out of potentially dangerous spaces during inspections. The use of such technology not only helps to improve worker safety but helps to advance industry 4.0 practices to digitise their asset inspection processes.
‘Cargill’s commitment to safety has been and continues to be our top priority,’ said Julian Chase, head of Business Operations & Supply Chain and Chief Transformation Officer at Cargill. ‘We are very focused on continuing to eliminate potential hazards from our workplace and this partnership with Flyability, and the capabilities they will bring, will help us deliver on that.’
Flyability specialises in drone-based industrial solutions for companies with a focus on the mining, power generation, energy, chemical, wastewater, and maritime industries. Flyability’s drone technology increases safety by reducing the need for inspectors to enter confined spaces. It also significantly reduces downtimes for confined space inspections.
The series C funding comes just a few months after Flyability launched Elios 3, the world’s first collision-tolerant drone equipped with a LiDAR sensor for indoor 3D mapping. Elios 3 allows inspectors to visualise their assets in 3D models created in real time as the drone flies. Inspectors can create survey-grade 3D models after flights using software from Flyability and its growing list of software partners.
The Series C investment will help Flyability strengthen its position as the market leader. It will also help develop new sensing and autonomy capabilities for the Elios 3, which was designed to be highly adaptable so that it could serve the specific needs of each industry that uses it.
