Dive Brief:

• Autonomous inspection and drone monitoring startup Percepto secured $67 million in series C equity and debt funding, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies and Zimmer Partners, according to a press release.
• The startup also received a nationwide regulation waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration, which allows it to utilize remotely operated automated drones on U.S. critical infrastructure sites.
• Percepto says this removes logistical and cost-related barriers to inspections, giving heavy industries real-time visibility into their infrastructure and systems’ integrity. 

Dive Insight:

The Beyond Visual Line of Sight waiver is the first instance of an industrial drone company receiving nationwide approval by the FAA, eliminating the need for Percepto to get site-specific approvals. 

Percepto says its autonomous inspection and monitoring solution, powered by drones and AI, enables critical infrastructure sites to increase the frequency and quality of inspections. It noted that the technology can identify problems such as gas leaks, overheating, and infrastructure deterioration, so that facility leads can take preventative measures to minimize the risk of safety and environmental dangers. 

The company provides this site inspection solution through two types of drones and a cloud-based analytics platform that monitors equipment performance and runs diagnostics to collect system data. Percepto serves the oil, gas, energy, and manufacturing sectors, with customers that include Koch Industries, Delek, Siemens Energy, and ICL Dead Sea Works. 

“Organizations are increasingly discovering the benefits of autonomous and remote drone operations to automate facility inspections and data analysis across their sites,” CEO Dor Abuhasira stated in the release. “With this new round of funding, new strategic investors, and the new regulations that significantly increase the 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.”

Other investors in the series C round include Atento Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, Delek US Holdings, Spider Capital, and Arkin Holdings. Founded in Israel in 2014, Percepto’s series C brings its total funding raised to date to more than $139 million, according to Crunchbase. 

The funding growth, combined with its FAA waiver, points to a potential momentum for drone companies that service facilities.

Skydio is another drone manufacturer that provides inspection software for energy, construction and public safety industries. The company raised a massive $230 million in series E funding in February, alongside the announcement of its Remote Ops software, which enables drones to be flown without an operator on site. It also launched Regulatory Services, which helps customers obtain line-of-sight waiver approvals so that they can operate its drones in fully remote operations.