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21:57 | 27 February 2023

Drone maker Skydio closes a $230 million Series E round.

Drone maker Skydio has raised $230 million in a Series E round at a valuation of $2.2 billion, more than double its valuation just two years ago.

Andreessen Horowitz, Next47, IVP, DoCoMo, Nvidia, Walton Family Foundation, UP Partners, Hercules Capital and Axon were the lead investors in the E round.

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

Skydio makes drones for the consumer, corporate and government sectors. Its drones are used by more than half of all U.S. government departments of transportation, as well as all divisions of the U.S. Department of Defense, and in the wake of that, the company has more than 1,200 corporate customers.

In the past three years, the company has achieved 30-fold growth.

Co-founder and CEO Adam Bry said in a release – “Drones enable the major industries that hold our civilization together – transportation, public safety, energy, construction, communications, defense and more – to operate more safely and efficiently by placing sensors where they are needed, when they are needed, while keeping people safe on the ground.”

In 2022, investment from venture capitalists in drone development startups is down almost twice as much as in 2021. In 2021, investment in the field was $2.2 billion, and in 2022 it dropped to $1.4 billion.

The new Skydio round is the largest the drone maker has raised this calendar year.

However, it is not the largest round raised in the last few months by a startup that works closely with the government and defense industry. Late last year, California-based Anduril closed a Series E round for about $1.5 billion, with a valuation of $8.5 billion.

Anduril creates software and hardware with artificial intelligence and machine learning for the military and defense industries. It works with the U.S. and its allies on drones, underwater vehicles and various command and control systems.

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