Charlotte-based venture capital firm Defiance Ventures is backing another local enterprise, drone tech startup Lucid Drone Technologies.
Defiance announced the investment on Monday. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed because the funding round is still open, said Lucid Drone co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Ashur.
Lucid Drone Technologies was co-founded in 2017 by Ashur, David Danielson and Adrian Mayans, who stepped away from the company earlier this summer for personal reasons, Ashur told Inno. Lucid Drone's tech was created to connect power-pressure washers to drones for safer cleaning of building exteriors.
Ashley Love, chief financial officer at Defiance Ventures, said the the team spent time getting to know Ashur and Danielson through a networking contact and determined the company to be a good fit for the VC's portfolio.
"We like to focus our investments in companies where we really believe in the founders," she said. "We think that’s going to get them further than their technology any day of the week — their ability to pivot, their tenacity, their drive, their energy."
Last spring, the technology was repurposed to disburse sanitation solutions inside buildings to minimize Covid-19's viral impact. In October, Lucid leased its tech to the Atlanta Falcons for use in disinfecting Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The co-founders were also named earlier this year to Forbes' 30 Under 30 in Manufacturing and Industry list.
It was that pivot and subsequent deal with the Falcons that made Lucid Drone an attractive investment for Defiance, Love said.
"Seeing the way they pivoted their technology to apply it to something like that so quickly is such a good sign to us of their ability to handle anything that comes at them in the future," she said.
Ashur said Lucid Drone is excited to have backing from Defiance Ventures as the startup moves into its next growth phase.
"The team at Defiance seeks out companies that are dedicated to transforming the world," he said. "At Lucid, our vision is to empower people to live better lives by building the world's most productive drones, so we found strong value alignment with one another from our earliest conversations."
In May, Defiance announced an investment into another local tech startup, BatteryXchange, co-founded in 2019 by Desmond Wiggan and Aubrey Yeboah. The VC's portfolio includes other Charlotte-based startups like Rabbu, 2ULaundry and Rent Ready.
