A drone startup that recently made Austin its global headquarters said June 12 it landed $67 million in new funding. Equity backing constituted $50 million of that total, while the remainder was debt financing.
Percepto Robotics Ltd. — which uses drones, robotics and software to monitor and assess critical infrastructure such as oil and gas pipelines — said its series C round was led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, a venture capital arm of Kansas-based Koch Industries Inc. New investor Zimmer Partners and an unnamed large U.S. energy company also chipped in, as did early backers U.S. Venture Partners, Delek US Holdings, Atento Capital, Spider Capital and Arkin Holdings.
The company, led by co-founder and CEO Dor Abuhasira, has now raised a total of $120 million since its founding in Israel in 2014. Its previous round was a $45 million series B infusion in 2020.
The other big news in Percepto's announcement might help explain the new funding. The company said it is the first to get the Federal Aviation Administration's approval for flying beyond line of sight nationwide, which the company secured in May. That designation means it has the FAA's blessing to remotely operate drones at critical infrastructure sites without site-specific approvals that would otherwise be required.
That trims time and costs by relieving the need for radar or on-ground personnel.
Percepto has a notable batch of customers. Last year, the company leased 11,000 square feet in Riviera Beach, Florida, where it planned hire about 100 people. Among its customers are Florida Power & Light, Verizon, Delek US, Koch Fertilizer and ICL Dead Sea Works.
The company is headquartered at 8310 N. Capital of Texas Hwy. Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer Ariel Avitan and Neta Gliksman, Percepto's vice president of policy and government affairs, are both based in Austin. The company didn't respond to questions about its overall headcount or number of Austin employees, or questions about revenue and valuation.
"Having deployed Percepto's technology across various Koch companies, we are experiencing first-hand how its innovative R&D improves inspection and monitoring," stated Chase Koch, founder and CEO of Koch Disruptive Technologies. "Their work to create a clear regulatory path for this technology puts it in a strong market position, firmly stationed at the forefront of the industry."
