– Elistair, a market leader in tethered drones, has raised €5M from Omnes and Starquest Capital, its historic investor.
– This Series B round follows an initial €2M funding round in 2018.
– Elistair counts national security and defense organizations amongst its customers, offering them two patented product ranges: an automated tethered drone: Orion 2 and tether stations capable of transforming free-flying drones into tethered drones.
– The Orion 2 drone acts as an aerial reconnaissance mast, substantially increasing the field of vision of operating forces and reducing vulnerable entry points.
– They are also used to deploy tactical communication networks, greatly increasing the range and coverage of military radios.

– Tangram Vision is announcing that it has raised a pre-seed fundraising round and is launching its sensor management SDK.
– Tangram Vision was founded in 2020 by computer vision veterans and Occipital alumni Brandon Minor and Adam Rodnitzky.
– While at Occipital, they helped to engineer and launch the Structure Sensor & SDK 3D sensing platform.
– After having worked with numerous robotics, drone and autonomous vehicle companies on integrating the Structure Sensor into their platforms, Brandon and Adam realized that there was a significant software gap for sensors.
– The company is building out its sensor management platform to enable developers to connect, manage and monitor their sensors in real time.

– Skycatch, a 3D scanning company, raised $25m in funding.
– The round was led by ADB Ventures and Wavemaker.
– The company plans to expand its sales and marketing team.

– Aerovel, a drone company, raised $2.4m funding.
– The round was led by undisclosed investors.
– Aerovel is developing a new drone it calls the Flexrotor, which is designed to take off and land vertically, like a helicopter, then transition into horizontal flight using wings for lift, like an airplane.
– Aerovel says the Flexrotor can stay aloft for up to 32 hours — a record for drones in its class — providing overhead surveillance for military, law enforcement or other civilian uses.

– Skydio raised $170m in Series D funding led by Andreessen Horowitz’s Growth Fund.
– This brings total funding raised to over $340m with a current valuation of over $1bn.
– Andreessen Horowitz, which also led the Series A, is joined in this round by existing investors Linse Capital, Next47, and IVP, along with new investor UP.Partners.
– With the additional capital raised, Skydio will further accelerate product development and global sales expansion to support the rapidly growing demand for its autonomous drone solutions.
– Skydio has been chosen in a myriad of deployments across construction companies, departments of transportation, energy utilities, and police departments.