Kittyhawk’s UAS management software interface (Kittyhawk)
A $5 million funding round has more than quadrupled drone solutions company Kittyhawk’s raised capital. The latest round, led by Jim Andelman of Bonfire Ventures and including Boeing’s HorizonX Ventures investment subsidiary, pushed Kittyhawk to a $6.5 million total since its 2015 founding.
“We were blown away by the quality of Kittyhawk’s enterprise customer base: Fortune 500 companies who themselves are leading the way in enterprise UAS adoption,” said Andelman, who will be joining Kittyhawk’s board of directors. “We were impressed by not only this current level of traction but also by the team’s thoughtfulness about the coming evolution of this industry. … They’re two steps ahead of how we heard everyone else thinking about this space.”
Designed for commercial drone operations both large and small, Kittyhawk’s solution aims to unify the mission, the aircraft and the data to enable companies to manage in-house commercial drone operations. From one platform, enterprises can manage the complexity of operators, aircraft, airspace, data analytics, insights and compliance to maximize safety and ROI.
“When paired with the broad portfolio of complementary data service offerings within Boeing, Kittyhawk is poised to help us shape the future of safe autonomous flight,” said Brian Schettler, managing director of Boeing HorizonX. “Boeing’s partnership with Kittyhawk on the FAA Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability program heralds the continued maturation of the commercial drone industry.”
As enterprises integrate and scale the number of drones in their workflow, they will be searching for ways to increase their oversight. Kittyhawk’s new artificial intelligence-powered feature, Hawkeye, will help fewer people manage a rapidly increasing number of flights, particularly as autonomous operations come to fruition. Kittyhawk will use the same technology that genetic researchers are using to find cures for debilitating diseases and the same technology that search engines are using to surface insights from the entirety of humanity’s knowledge base.