DroneDeploy Series D brings $35 million into drone industry

Investors are still confident in the drone industry, if this news is any indication. DroneDeploy, an enterprise-grade drone software company based in San Francisco, today announced it closed a $35 million Series D round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

Bessemer has a solid track record, having backed other notable companies including Pinterest, Yelp, LinkedIn and Skype.

“At Bessemer, we see drone solutions as a major opportunity in a $6 billion global market and DroneDeploy is the clear software category leader,” Bessemer partner David Cowan said in a prepared statement. “The world’s largest drone deployments rely on their technology, and we’re excited to help bring the value of their platform to companies around the world.”

That DroneDeploy Series D funding round brings the company’s total funding to $90 million, including another $25 million raised last year. The company’s other investors include Energize Ventures, AirTree, Emergence Capital, Scale Venture Partners, and Uncork Capital.

DroneDeploy has been on a tear recently, having recently announced new partnerships with Airbus, DroneInsurance.com, and drone hardware maker Skydio, which makes a much-hyped consumer-focused drone with multiple sensors that can allow the drone to navigate autonomously through complicated landscapes.

DroneDeploy is a San Francisco-based drone startup that enables professional-grade 3D modeling , imagery and analysis from a variety of drones. The company now has more than 5,000 customers in industries including oil and gas, construction, mining, solar, agriculture and insurance, who have together mapped a combined 100 million acres (that’s greater than the size of Greece and Italy combined) through DroneDeploy.

DroneDeploy is the No. 2 most-used mission planning software, according to the 2017 Skylogic Research Drone Market Sector Report, behind the in-house DJI app.

“DroneDeploy (is) pushing boundaries more than any other vendor,” according to the report. “Their app market is the largest set of industry-specific integrated apps available.

Related read: Skycatch Commander review: how to make maps using a DJI Phantom

DroneDeploy’s competitors include Pix4D, Kittyhawk and Skycatch.