Shield AI, a US-based defence technology developer backed by Bloomberg Beta, the investment firm sponsored by media group Bloomberg, secured $90m yesterday in a series C round.
The round consisted of equity and debt financing and was led by venture capital firm Point72 Ventures.
Founded in 2015, Shield AI provides edge artificial intelligence software that enables small unmanned aircraft systems to operate autonomously even when out of reach of communications systems such as GPS.
The funding will allow the company to scale and further integrate its Hivemind software to enable indoor and outdoor reconnaissance in conflict zones. It expects to reveal a next-generation product within months.
Shield AI secured $52.9m in equity financing towards a $75m target in November 2020, according to a regulatory filing, likely forming part of the series C round.
The company closed a $22.2m series B round in September 2019, raising the money from unnamed investors. Breyer Capital supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for it eight months earlier, as part of a round indicated by a separate filing to be $10m.
Andreessen Horowitz led Shield AI’s $10.5m series A round in 2017, investing with Bloomberg Beta, Homebrew and Founder Collective. It had previously received $2.6m in funding from unnamed backers the year before, according to a securities filing.
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.