Flytrex Funding: Company Raises $40M to Expand Drone Delivery Services Across the US

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

On-demand drone delivery leader Flytrex has announced that it has raised $40 million in it’s Series C funding round, bringing its total funding to date to $60 million. The round, led by BRM Group, saw participation from OurCrowd, Lukasz Gadowski, Founder and Chairman at Delivery Hero, and featured existing investors Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV), btov, and BackBone Ventures. Flytrex aims to leverage the funds in order to accelerate expansion across the US and advance partnerships with leading retailers and quick-service restaurants (QSRs), with the goal of making drone delivery services more commonplace.

This latest funding round follows several key launches and expansions by Flytrex. The company most recently launched its third drone delivery station in North Carolina, from which it delivers food orders from restaurants and chains at the Holly Springs Towne Center directly to residents’ backyards. Flytrex has been operating in North Carolina since September 2020, when it began delivering groceries, household items and restaurant orders to select customers in Fayetteville, with the service having since expanded to the town of Raeford. The number of Flytrex orders across its North Carolina operations has grown more than tenfold since last February, with the company completing thousands of deliveries to date.

“On-demand drone delivery has skyrocketed since the pandemic began and is becoming much more mainstream, much faster than expected,” said Flytrex CEO and co-founder Yariv Bash. “We’re excited to continue working with the FAA, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and others to bring swift, affordable and sustainable on-demand drone delivery to more partners, communities and consumers across the country.”

In 2017, Flytrex successfully launched the world’s first fully autonomous urban drone delivery system in Reykjavik, Iceland. Since then, the company has been helping to drive regulatory advances aimed at getting drone delivery off the ground. Flytrex took part in the Federal Aviation Administration’s UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) which ended in October 2020, and continued in the FAA’s subsequent initiative, BEYOND, to work with the North Carolina Department of Transportation in order to help address the remaining challenges of UAS integration.

“We are committed to supporting companies that have the potential to change people’s lives for the better, and Flytrex’s impact on retailers and consumers alike fits that mission perfectly,” said BRM Group Partner Eran Barkat. “Drones are playing a key role in revolutionizing last mile delivery for communities around the world, and we are thrilled to support the Flytrex team as they take the future of food and household delivery to new heights.”

Read more about Flytrex’s drone delivery program, FAA approvals, and company leadership.

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.