Terra Drone Financing on a Roll: $70M in Series B Funding

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian M. Crosby

Drone and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) leader Terra Drone Corporation has announced that it has closed $70 million USD (8 billion Japanese yen) in its Series B funding round, receiving investments from Mitsui & Co., Ltd., SBI Investment Co., Ltd., Tokyu Land Corporation, Kyushu Electric Power T&D, and Seika Corporation.

The Series B round also saw public-private infrastructure fund Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development (JOIN) provide funding for the recently established joint venture, with additional contribution by established investor Venture Lab Investment.

“Our airspace is going to get more crowded than ever, but most companies today are concentrating only on hardware development,” says Terra Drone founder and CEO Toru Tokushige. “There’s an urgent need for a global air traffic management solution to enable safe and efficient drone and UAM operations, and Terra Drone aims to be the leading player building the digital infrastructure in the sky.”

Terra Drone has been collaborating with JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, for the coordination of flight management of crewed and uncrewed aircraft.

Additionally, Netherlands-based group company Terra Inspectioneering is working with Oil and Gas production and processing companies including Shell, BASF, and Bunge while Terra Drone Indonesia provides survey, inspection, and surveillance services to clients such as Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and AECOM. Terra Drone continues to utilize the integration of drone-based solutions for the advancement of safety and efficiency in industries around the world.

“A focus on increasing recurring revenue through the sale of survey-grade hardware and cloud based software such as Terra LiDAR; providing specialized solutions such as ultrasonic thickness (UT) measurements and non-destructive testing (NDT) using drones through Terra Inspectioneering; and a strategic consolidation of overseas business has made us well-positioned for success,” said Tokushige. “With this latest round of funding, we will be able to scale up operations and innovate faster.”

Read more about Terra Drone:

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.