Aerodome Raises $21.5M in Series A Funding Led by CRV
May 22 2024 - 10:03AM
Business Wire
Entrepreneur and Reserve Police Officer
Rahul Sidhu and Chief Architect Kenaniah Cerny Expand Next-Gen
Drone-As-First-Responder Technology for Public Safety
Agencies
Aerodome, the leader in Drone-As-First-Responder (DFR)
technology, today announced that the company has raised $21.5
million in Series A funding to continue building DFR solutions and
growing its engineering and go-to-market teams. CRV led the round
with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Karman
Ventures, Immad Akhund (CEO, Mercury), and Ford Street Ventures.
The company raised its seed round in October 2023, led by a16z and
2048 Ventures, bringing its total funding to $28 million.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240522051182/en/
Aerodome, the leader in
Drone-As-First-Responder (DFR) technology, today announced that the
company has raised $21.5 million in Series A funding to continue
building DFR solutions and growing its engineering and go-to-market
teams. (Graphic: Business Wire)
“Upon experiencing Aerodome’s technology firsthand on a
fly-along, I immediately recognized its potential to have a
scalable impact on public safety and its ability to save lives,”
said Saar Gur, General Partner, CRV and Aerodome’s newest board
member. “Speed is of the essence in emergencies. Aerodome doesn’t
just provide police agencies with ROI, it also gives them an
insanely valuable source of real-time intelligence to first
responders out in the field.”
Co-founded by Aerodome CEO and reserve police officer Rahul
Sidhu and Aerodome Chief Architect Kenaniah Cerny, the company is
ushering in a new era of DFR with a turnkey solution that is
faster, safer, and more energy efficient than others on the market.
By providing a fully automated and remote air support operating
system, Aerodome equips agencies with a highly advanced, 24/7
solution that reduces the need for patrol officers to respond to
calls by 15 percent while offering 80 percent faster response
times.
“As the second officer in the country to launch a DFR program, I
wanted to build a more advanced, automated solution that would
reduce the strain on officer resources,” said Sidhu, also a former
paramedic, crew chief, and pilot. “Our DFR 2.0 solution is a true
force multiplier, since it only requires a single operator
overseeing multiple drones at once. Our air traffic awareness
system acts as a better observer than human pilots – capable of
tracking planes, helicopters, other drones, and even birds in all
directions, which saves precious time and resources for
agencies.”
In just a year since its founding, Aerodome has secured
contracts with police departments, nearly doubling its earnings
projections for Q1 of 2024. Aerodome attributes its rapid growth to
its advanced DFR system that is fully remote and automated,
multi-station, and multi-drone. Agencies are using the Aerodome DFR
system to accomplish an average 86-second response time to 911
calls, versus the average 7-8 minutes of many precincts reliant on
traditional response measures alone. Additionally, with an average
of two deaths per year from aviation-related crashes, plus
widespread pollution from helicopters, DFR continues to offer a
safer, more environmentally conscious supplement to police
helicopters.
"Aerodome's willingness to engage with our staff on the unique
characteristics of our jurisdiction, and future directions with
which to grow DFR capabilities, has led to high levels of
confidence between our Department and their company," said
Lieutenant Robert Mitchell at Hawthorne Police Department. "We were
happy to partner with Aerodome. They did what they said they were
going to do, and more."
Aerodome has also secured a new exclusive partnership with
Hextronics, a world leader in enabling drone autonomy. Hextronics
is supplying a drone dock that is purpose-built for DFR with a
rapid, automated battery-changing system, HVAC system, and the
ability to operate remotely in any condition.
To learn more about Aerodome’s mission and products, additional
information can be found at aerodome.com.
About Aerodome:
Based in Los Angeles, Aerodome is bringing the future of air
support to public safety agencies. Using a fully integrated,
automated, and remote software operating system, Aerodome equips
agencies with highly advanced, 24/7 Drone-As-First-Responder (DFR)
capabilities. The company has received funding from CRV, Andreessen
Horowitz (a16z), Karman Ventures, and more.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240522051182/en/
press@aerodome.com