The new round was led by and included participation from , , , , , the , , and .

The new round comes almost exactly two years after the company raised a $170 million Series D at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Founded in 2014, Skydio has raised $562 million in total, according to the company.

Skydio produces drones for the consumer, enterprise and government sectors. Its drones are used by every branch of the , by over half of all and it now has more than 1,200 enterprise customers.

The company, whose autonomous drones are mainly used for surveillance and public safety operations, has realized 30x growth over the past three years.

“Drones enable the core industries that our civilization runs on — transportation, public safety, energy, construction, communications, defense and more — to operate more safely and more efficiently by putting sensors wherever they’re needed, whenever they’re needed, while keeping people safely on the ground,” said co-founder and CEO in a .

Drones, defense and money

Funding to drone startups was down last year compared to 2021 — which was typical in most industries as venture capitalists pulled back on spending. In 2021, drone startups saw $2.2 billion invested, according to Crunchbase data. That number dropped to $1.4 billion last year.

Skydio’s new round is by far the largest raised by a drone manufacturer this calendar year.

It is not, however, the largest round raised in the last several months by a startup that works closely with the government and the defense industry. Late last year, Costa Mesa, California-based defense and security firm locked up a Series E worth nearly $1.5 billion that values the company at $8.5 billion. 

Anduril builds software and hardware enhanced with artificial intelligence and machine learning for the military and defense industry. It works with the U.S. and its allies to create drones, underwater vehicles and different operating and control systems.

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Over the past eight years, drone companies have raised a known total of nearly $1.76 billion dollars, with almost $500 million of that funding being raised in 2017 and $96.6 million being raised since the beginning of 2018. According to , 67 percent of those funding rounds were for seed and early-stage ventures.

Tech Advances Spur Drone Innovation

As imaging and connectivity technology becomes more sophisticated, and business and environmental issues become more complex, more startups have popped up in the sphere. Accordingly, VCs have begun to direct an increasing amount of cash into the industry.

The devices have even provided assistance during times of environmental disaster. Kraettli Epperson, CEO of Vigilant Aerospace, told Crunchbase News in September that drones “provide immediate access to better data, mapping and situational awareness in a way that is safer, faster, and less costly than other methods of assessment” when it comes to disaster response.

On the early stage front, we also reported that DroneBase raised a $12 Million dollar Series A led by and to expand its influence in the Drones as a Service (DaaS) industry for commercial partners.

Another notable player in the drone sace is , which closed a in 2017 backed by , , , and other big venture players in Silicon Valley.

Designed by its team of MIT engineers, its latest drone release, the R1, is controlled through a smartphone app and can, creepily enough, and follow them while filming and avoiding obstacles. According to , the company developed the drone using technology similar to that of autonomous vehicles.

Though the drone is meant to be a consumer tech device, providing sophisticated content creation rather than fun flight experiences is the goal.

“This product is less about the experience of manually flying it and much more about the content that you can create,” CEO .

Dronebase also told Crunchbase News last month that “there has been more structure in the [drone] regulatory environment.”

Regulations Inspire Drone Management Startups

To manage the incoming regulatory tide, drone management services like and are there to help.

Unlike other drone management companies, Skysafe . Its devices force the landing of drones by jamming the operators’ frequencies with strong radio waves. And while the military is interested in drone technology, Skysafe’s system is perhaps even or otherwise harmful material in an effective and safe way is a powerful defense. Likewise, , SkySafe signed $1.5 million Department of Defense contract to provide counter-drone tech to the Navy Seals.

In light all of all of this excitement in the industry, we have compiled a list of the top 21 early-stage drone companies to watch out for. They range from commercially-focused DaaS companies to drone management companies and personal fliers like the ones mentioned above. We tracked latest funding rounds in the seed, Series A and Series B funding stages that took place in 2017 and 2018 (so far). The companies are rated by amount raised in that last funding round.

Editorial Note: A previous version of the chart incorrectly listed Skydio’s last funding round as $12M. 

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