US-based drone interception technology manufacturer Airspace Systems has attracted $20m in a series A round led by Singtel Innov8, the corporate venturing arm of telecommunications firm Singtel.
Venture capital firm Shasta Ventures also contributed to the round, as did fellow VC firm Granite Hill Capital Partners and VC fund S28 Capital.
Founded in 2015, Airspace Systems has developed a system called Airspace Command Centre that incorporates hardware and software to help secure entertainment venues, businesses and critical infrastructure against attacks from unmanned aerial vehicles.
The system utilises high-speed robotics and machine learning to spot and intercept drones that could potentially be used for criminal damage or theft.
Airspace Systems will use the series A capital to begin scaling production of its product. The proceeds will also fund the recruitment of staff to continue work on its machine vision, autonomous navigation and embedded systems technology.
Jeff Karras, managing director of investments at Singtel Innov8, will join Airspace’s board of directors in connection with the round. The company had raised $5m in seed funding from Shasta, Granite Hill, Sterling VC and unnamed angel investors as of late 2016, according to TechCrunch.
Karras said: “Demand for protecting stadiums, commercial buildings, power plants and, for that matter, any other public venues from potential drone threats is growing rapidly.
“There are a number of important drone defence technologies flooding the market but there has not been one which integrates all the best capabilities under a single platform until the solutions developed by Airspace.”