US-based computer vision technology developer Iris Automation completed a $13m series B round yesterday featuring Sony Innovation Fund and Verizon Ventures, investing on behalf of electronics producer Sony and telecommunications firm Verizon.
The corporates were joined by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), Bee Partners and OCA Ventures, all of which were labelled as existing investors. The company’s funding now stands at $22.5m since it was founded in 2015.
Iris has developed detect-and-avoid systems that use computer vision to help unmanned aerial vehicles stay away from airborne and stationary objects. It will use the cash to bolster its artificial intelligence and machine learning technology and the detection and classification abilities of its Casia system.
BVP led an $8m series A round for the company in January 2018 that included Bee Partners, which had led a $1.5m seed round the year before also backed by Social Capital, GGV Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures and angel investors Kevin Moore and Pau Bucheit.
Gen Tsuchikawa, CEO of Sony Innovation Fund, said: “Iris Automation is pushing the innovation envelope by using machine vision and on-board AI to bring unparalleled safety to the unmanned aircraft industry, which will fully unlock the commercial drone market beyond visual line-of-sight.
“This further builds upon Sony Innovation Fund’s drone investment thesis, and we believe the company’s scalable technologies makes it uniquely positioned to usher a new era in autonomous aviation.”
