Ocean drone startup Saildrone raises $14M in series A funding
Saildrone an ocean drone startup that that provides real data by a fleet of unmanned and autonomous sailing drones solutions, has raised $14 million in Series A investment round. The round was led by Social Capital with investments from the Capricorn Investment Group and Lux Capital. The company is planning to use this funding for expanding its fleet of sailing drones, enhancing data processing capacity, and scaling commercial operations.
The California-based firm offers a wide range of solutions that includes Oceanography and Climate Data Solutions, Fisheries Data Solutions and Environmental Data Solutions. The company claims that by augmenting traditional ships with a fleet of Saildrones, one can cost-effectively and autonomously gather data over large ocean areas in any conditions. Launched and retrieved from a dock, the Saildrone fleet navigates to its destination using wind power alone, transiting at three to five knots. Each drone can then hold station or perform survey patterns best suited for the specific research mission. Saildrones have sailed over 60,000 nautical miles, with missions in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Bering Sea.
Richard Jenkins, Founder and CEO of Saildrone said, “We’re thrilled to be partnering with like-minded investors, who are mission driven and have deep expertise in marrying innovative hardware with big data.”
Data collected by the Saildrones will not only transform the understanding of our oceans, but will also bring insight into issues like weather, fish populations, ocean acidification and climate change processes that will affect every person on this planet. Understanding these processes, and their rate of change, is crucial to our economies and ultimately, our survival.