Dedrone Closes $30M in Oversubscribed Series C-1 Financing Round

by Ian M Crosby

Today, smart airspace security leader Dedrone announced its closing of $30 million in an oversubscribed Series C-1 financing round.

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The round was led by public safety technology company Axon, with participation from Aqton Partners, Menlo Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Target Partners and individual Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This latest round of funding follows this past December’s Series C round, which brought in $30.5 million. Dedrone will leverage the funding to further expand its team globally, establishing a second office in California as well as advancing its multi-sensor fusion airspace security solution.

“As more and more drones enter the skies, maintaining airspace security has become a vital function of national and local governments, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, public venues and much more. This fact is illustrated by the White House’s recent Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems National Action Plan to protect against nefarious drone activity,” said Dedrone CEO Aaditya Devarakonda. “This need to better secure airspace has been a driving factor in Dedrone’s exponential growth in 2022; we are on track to double our revenue projections for the year and triple new hires in the US, including building a focused engineering team in California. Now is the time to ensure we continue to deliver the most robust, accurate and technologically advanced airspace security solution to our customers around the world.”

Dedrone provides a Command and Control solution for all Counter-Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (C-UAS), able to detect, analyze and mitigate almost 300 varieties of drone through over 65 manufacturers. Able to operate cloud-based or on-prem/air-gapped, this solution features comprehensive AI/ML-based detection capabilities, fusion tracker software, sensors, mitigation functionality and advanced analytics. The company recently launched DedroneRapidResponse, a mobile solution able to be deployed in less than 30 minutes to protect a five-kilometer radius of airspace for outdoor events.

“Dedrone has long been a market leader and, over the last six months, commercial demand has accelerated to unprecedented levels,” said Menlo Ventures partner Venky Ganesan. “Dedrone continues to deliver the kind of airspace security solutions that are most needed around the world today, which is why we continue to be a proud investor.”

Operating throughout 36 countries, nine U.S. federal agencies, over 75 critical infrastructure sites, and over 20 airports and 50 correctional facilities across the globe, Dedrone supplies its drone detection services for some of the world’s most notable events, and collaborates with over 35 law enforcement agencies.

“Dedrone is accelerating the path towards making the world safer from unauthorized and malicious drones,” said Henrik Kühl, SVP of Strategy and Corporate Development at Axon. “We performed extensive due diligence to evaluate multiple companies in this space. We were impressed by Dedrone’s technology, team and commercial traction.”

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Ian attended Dominican University of California, where he received a BA in English in 2019. With a lifelong passion for writing and storytelling and a keen interest in technology, he is now contributing to DroneLife as a staff writer.