Danvers, Mass.-based unmanned aerial vehicles creator CyPhy Works announced Tuesday a $7 million round of financing. Led by Lux Capital, the newfound funds will help the team's flying robots hit new heights.
CyPhy Works is the brainchild of MIT alumna Helen Greiner, co-founder, president and chairman of renowned robotics innovator iRobot. Her expertise has led to the debut of two easy-to-operate flying robots for applications in the military, civil and commercial sectors: EASE, an indoor hovering robot, and PARC, an outdoor multicopter platform.
With this round of funding, CyPhy Works will be expanding its development and deployment of UAVs in surveying and situational awareness for commercial sectors, including agriculture, mining, construction and insurance. The company's platforms will also begin providing surveyors, mine operators, agronomists, insurance companies and security agencies with "persistent," 24/7 remote imagining data that was previously unavailable to them.
“The opportunity to bring flying robots to commercial sectors for imaging, surveying, mapping, monitoring and other applications is truly exciting,” said Greiner, founder and CEO, in a statement. "We are building a reliable and robust platform that is differentiated from hobbyist class UAVs, and is specifically designed for field operations in rough real-world conditions. ”
Felicis Ventures and General Catalyst Partners also participated in this round, along with several undisclosed angel investors. With the financing, Lux Capital Partner Bilal Zuberi, formerly of General Catalyst, will join the CyPhy Works board of directors.
“Helen is one of the most amazing technical founders of our generation,” lauded Zuberi in a statement. “CyPhy Works is a pioneer in the world of UAVs, and their flying robots bring 21st technologies, such as distributed sensors, imaging and big data analytics to some of the biggest industries in the world.”
Pronounced "sci-fi," "CyPhy" is a combination of "cyber" and "physical." The company's goal is to "make cyber physical systems that work and empower people," which is why they offer a proprietary microfilament technology capable of being used in the field for hours, days or weeks without a battery needing to be swapped out. CyPhy Works' UAV platform also allows for additional sensors to be easily mounted, thereby broadening its use cases.
The team's mission statement says it all: "Our community inspires; Our team creates; Our robots empower."
