DroneDeploy raises $50 million to collect and analyze visual data with drones and robots

DroneDeploy, a platform that offers businesses access to commercial drone operators to capture professional-grade imagery of an environment and carry out data analysis, has raised $50 million in a series E round of funding.

The raise comes just a few months after the San Francisco-based company moved beyond airborne drones to capture visual data at ground level. With 360 Walkthrough as part of its product suite, DroneDeploy now offers companies in construction, mining, agriculture, and other sectors a more rounded view of their properties by combining data from every angle and transforming it into insights.

For example, site managers can compare and contrast footage from different dates to show what changes have happened and trace a problem to the source.

Alongside construction giant Brasfield & Gorrie, which has used DroneDeploy to capture aerial imagery since 2015, DroneDeploy tapped robotics company Boston Dynamics to develop the workflow required to capture 360-degree video construction documentation from the ground. By attaching a 360-degree camera to the quadruped Spot robot, the companies demonstrated how they can capture data from inside buildings entirely autonomously and remotely.

However, all of this was really designed to showcase DroneDeploy’s new offering, which will work with most 360-degree cameras through manual and autonomous operations. It can be used with a camera mounted to a stick, car, helmet, or other object as someone traverses a property.

The DroneDeploy platform is underpinned by a host of integrations with third-party enterprise apps, spanning Autodesk, Procore, Bluebeam, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Egnyte, and dozens more. Moreover, any developer can integrate directly with the DroneDeploy platform through an API.

DroneDeploy had previously raised around $93 million. With another $50 million in the bank via a round of funding led by Energize Ventures and AirTree, the company is well-financed to continue its expansion “beyond drones” and double down on its plans for Europe.