Android apps for drones maker FlytBase raises seed funding

FlytBase, maker of Android-based applications for drones, has raised an undisclosed sum in a seed round from unnamed investors.

The Redwood City, California-based startup had previously raised money from angel investors, Kaushik Gala its chief business officer told TechCircle in an emailed statement Tuesday.

“The funding will be used to expand our team in India with expertise in robotics, automation, AI/ML, computer vision, MEAN stack and other relevant technologies. It'll also help us ramp up business development and FlytWare deployment activities in our primary customer geographies i.e. US and Europe,” Gala said.

Financial and investor-related details pertaining to the current and previous round went undisclosed.

FlytBase provides drone agnostic software solutions to automate and scale drone operations. It claims to be the world’s first IoD (internet of drones) platform, allowing deployment of intelligent drone fleets, connected with cloud-based business applications, according to its website.

The company allows integration of drones with cloud-based business applications such as SAP, ERP (enterprise resource planning), UTMs (unmanned traffic management), CAD (computer aided dispatch), warehouse management systems, flight log and management solutions.

These solutions are utilized for remote drone operations, emergency response, automated inspections, security and surveillance, warehouse management, and delivery amongst other industry-wide applications. Flytbase’s client, partner base include the likes of Cisco, Intel, Nvidia, and NTT Data. Its customers are primarily in the United States and Europe.

Founded by 2017, Flytbase’s leadership team consists of Gala, CEO Nitin Gupta, director of strategic projects Dhiraj Dhule, director of engineering Sharvashish Das, and business development head Achal Negi.

The drone sector at large consists of hardware players, software players, as well as service providers. FlytBase has competitors on the operating system or platform side of business and also with its industry-specific solutions such as Flytware, Gala said.

“The commercial drone industry is moving towards fully autonomous BVLOS operations. These drone operations cannot be scaled without automation and connectivity,” Gala added.

Worldwide shipments of the internet of things (IoT) enterprise drones will total 526,000 units, an increase of 50% from 2019, according to research firm Gartner. The shipments are expected to reach 1.3 million units by 2023. Construction and insurance sectors will see the highest use cases.