Airware decided on the move after it discovered that big enterprise companies didn’t know how to piece together drone systems themselves, so they were slow to adapting to the tech that could save them money and keep employees out of harm’s way.
The Federal Aviation Administration has projected in a report that 7 million drones will be sold annually in the US within four years.
Some 4.3 million, the FAA forecasted, will be bought and flown by consumer hobbyists, while 2.7 million flying robots will be purchase for commercial purposes and operated by a variety of businesses.
Airware, a San Francisco-based startup developing an operating system for drones, is hoping that it will power a good chunk of the commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
On Thursday, the company announced it had raised $30 million in venture capital in a round led by Next World Capital. That investment also included previous investors like Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and Andreessen Horowitz as well as Cisco Systems Executive Chairman and former CEO John Chambers, who joined Airware’s board.
Founded in 2011 as Unmanned Innovation Inc., Airware is now one of the highest funded drone startups, having raised more than $70 million to date. Airware CEO Jonathan Downey declined to disclose his company’s valuation, but it is estimated that it could be valued at as high as $190 million
Airware offers enterprise customers a software platform to manage their use of commercial drones. Airware helps enterprise customers ensure regulatory compliance and then dispatches the flight jobs themselves to the company’s own employees or to a third-party operator.
“Our goal is to get the technology to be so easy to use, that with a couple of hours of training, really anybody could be operating the system,” Downey said.
Downey declined to discuss the San Francisco company’s valuation or whether it was profitable. The company raised a $25 million round in 2014, VentureWire archives show
source by singaporenews.net
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