US-based drone development plaform Airware launched an investment fund yesterday, the same day as China-based camera technology developer DJI and venture capital firm Accel Partners established their own drone fund.
Airware’s Commercial Drone Fund will invest between $250,000 and $1m in early-stage companies working on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies such as sensor hardware, software, aerial data analysis technology and drone-based services.
The fund plans to back several dozen companies over the next two years. Its first two investments are France-based data analytics platform Redbird, which secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding, and Sky-Futures, a UK-based data analytics service for the gas and oil industry, that received $1m.
Commercial Drone Fund has been set up as a separate legal entity to Airware and the company is not backing the fund, instead seeking capital from limited partners. Airware CEO Jonathan Downey will act as general partner.
SkyFund, formed by DJI and Accel, will target the wider UAV sector, and is looking to invest in startups focused on robotics and machine intelligence, drone-related software, computer vision and navigation, multimedia communities and tools, and general drone-related services.
The fund will operate as a 50:50 joint venture between DJI and Accel, and is equipped with $10m of capital, Sameer Gandhi, partner at Accel, told Forbes, adding that the size of the fund will likely grow in future.
Accel invested $75m in DJI at an $8bn valuation earlier this month, and the company is currently raising funding at a $10bn valuation from investors including VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
On top of the seed funding, DJI will also provide both product and technical resources, and wiill give startups access to demos and beta versions of its applications. Accel on the other hand will assist with developing best practices, creating scalable customer support and community building.