(from Percepto)
Percepto, an Israeli startup that develops new drone and UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) using AI technologies, raised $67M Series in combined equity and debt in a Series C round of funding, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), alongside new investors Zimmer Partners and one of the largest U.S. energy companies. In a sign of how important drone/UAV technologies are these days, Percepto has raised $120 million to date and made this big raise, while the rest of Israel Startup Nation continues to make cutbacks due to the continuing global financial crisis.
In another example of how Israel is advancing new drone/UAV tech, just last week Jewish Business News reported on how Israel’s National Air Drone Initiative (INDI) conducted the first air taxi takeoff and landing test ever held in Israel. It did so with the eVTOL (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing), an autonomous aircraft that can carry passengers and heavy cargo is expected to serve as public transportation in the aerial dimension. Dronery, a subsidiary of Cando Drones, operated the EH-216S model manufactured by EHANG, while AIR flew the AIR ZERO model is designed and manufactured in Israel.
And in other Percepto news, the company recently received what it described as an unprecedented, nationwide Beyond Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), allowing the company to provide any US critical infrastructure site with remotely-operated automated drones without the need for site specific approvals from the FAA.
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Percepto called this a “game changer” for the industry saying the waiver removed logistical and cost barriers, such as the need for radars or people on the ground, fueling the adoption of autonomous drone technology.
Founded in 2014 by CEO Dor Abuhasira and CCO Ariel Avitan, Percepto is an autonomous inspection and monitoring solution provider, changing how industrial sites remotely monitor and inspect their critical infrastructure and assets. Listed in TIME magazine’s 100 Best Inventions of 2021, Percepto’s AIM platform fully automates visual data workflows from capture to insight, leveraging the Percepto Air drone-in-a-box portfolio, alongside other robots and visual sensors. Using advanced machine learning and AI, Percepto AIM provides an end-to-end autonomous inspection and monitoring solution, to assess risk, minimize downtime, drive efficiency, increase safety and reduce operational costs.
Percepto Autonomous Inspection & Monitoring (AIM), the company’s end-to-end visual inspection solution powered by autonomous drones, robots and AI, enables critical infrastructure sites to increase the frequency and quality of inspections via automation. The solution automates the entire visual inspection workflow, from data collection to AI-powered analysis and insights.
“KDT’s reinvestment underlines their confidence in our ability to make companies more profitable by keeping infrastructure operational in the face of the unpredictable,” said Percepto Co-founder and CEO Dor Abuhasira. “Organizations are increasingly discovering the benefits of autonomous and remote drone operations to automate facility inspections and data analysis across their sites. With this new round of funding, new strategic investors, and the new regulations that significantly increase access to using autonomous drones, the conditions are ripe for the autonomous drone market to expand, and for Percepto to meet the growing demand for automated drone inspections and monitoring at industrial sites.”
