Aeroxo, a developer of long range unmanned aerial systems, is proud to announce the completion of its seed round of funding with a $500,000 investment from I2BF Global Ventures. The company has also been awarded a mini-grant from the Skolkovo Foundation in the amount of 5 million rubles (approximately $100,000).
Aeroxo was founded in 2014 and has raised a total of $1 million from Eldar Razroev and I2BF Global Ventures. The company is developing a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for monitoring of remote infrastructure, search and rescue operations, disaster prevention, environmental monitoring, communications, aerial photography and video, as well as entertainment applications with virtual reality. Aeroxo is also developing its proprietary cloud-based aerial data integration, storage and processing platform.
"ERA-100 is the first commercial UAV with vertical takeoff and landing capability that has a range of over 1,000 kilometers" - says Eldar Razroev, Aeroxo co-founder - "tilt-rotor enabled ERA-100 has unprecedented range of flight, efficiency, and maneuverability characteristics."
Ilya Golubovich, the managing partner of I2BF Global Ventures has pointed out: "The unique characteristics of Aeroxo’s tilt-rotors will allow the company to enter the global market of small UAVs, the fastest growing segment in unmanned aerial systems, which by various estimates shall reach over $2 billion by year 2020”
Science director of the Space and telecommunications cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation Nikolay Mikhaylov has commented on the mini-grant award: “UAVs constantly find new applications in various sectors, such as infrastructural monitoring, agriculture, forestry, package delivery. Clear vision and well-elaborated market entry strategy presented by the Aeroxo team was one of the main reasons why Skolkovo decided to back this project.”
Earlier this month, as part of Skolkovo’s Start Up Village, Aeroxo has presented a lineup of its convertiplane UAVs to the public. The Company is planning to commence demo flights and missions with anchor clients later this fall.
The Company will use the proceeds from this investment round and mini-grant to continue development of its UAV platform, new applications and payload integration, as well as completion of its OXO Mapper cloud based data processing, storage and visualization platform.
About Aeroxo
Aeroxo is a new generation long range aerial robotics and data gathering platform. Its core technology is a tilt-rotor UAV, an unmanned aerial vehicle with vertical take-off and landing capability that yet matches the performance characteristics comparable to those of airplane type UAVs. Aeroxo was started in Russia, but has global ambitions to expand the reach of UAV technology to the furthest corners of the Earth. The company operates through its offices in Moscow (Russia), Kazan (Tatarstan) and New York (USA). Visit www.aeroxo.com for further information or follow us @Aeroxo.
About I2BF Global Ventures
I2BF Global Ventures is a New York based venture capital group focused on early stage technology investments with $400 million under management. I2BF’s portfolio includes over 30 companies working in cleantech, biotechnology, materials science, IT and space technology sectors. For more information visit us at www.i2bf.com or follow us @I2BF
About the Skolkovo Foundation
The Skolkovo Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in September 2010 by the Russian government with the objective of accelerating Russia’s transformation from a resource-intensive to an innovation-based economy. To achieve this objective, the Foundation is overseeing the creation of the Skolkovo Innovation Center, composed of more than 1,000 high-tech startups, Skolkovo Technopark, the Skolkovo Institute of Technology (Skoltech) - a new graduate research University established in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - and Skolkovo city, located near Moscow. Together, these entities establish a vibrant ecosystem of technology innovation and entrepreneurship. Fifty global corporations including Boeing, Cisco Systems, EADS, GE, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Siemens, Nokia, Samsung, and Panasonic have already recognized the opportunity Skolkovo presents by signing R&D partnership agreements with the Foundation. The cumulative revenue of Skolkovo’s startups through December 2014 reached $1 billion. They brought in more than $220 million in investment, creating 13,500 jobs and filing over 1,300 patent applications along the way. By 2020 over 2 million square meters of residential and office space will be built in Skolkovo with 35,000 people working daily in the Innovation Center. For more information: http://www.sk.ru/en
Press contacts
Skolkovo:
Taisiya Yarmak
Tel.: +79166948826
E-mail: tyarmak@sk.ru