Whenever Hollywood remakes Alfred Hitchcock's classic "North by Northwest," it might have to replace the crop duster used in one of the original's most famous scenes with a drone.
That's the ambition of Pyka Inc., anyway. The Oakland-based startup has developed an autonomous electric-powered aircraft called the Pelican that it's specifically designing to spray pesticides on fields and to carry cargo.
The vehicle looks much like a small airplane, but it doesn't have a cockpit and so doesn't have any room for a human pilot. Instead, the Pelican, which is powered by three electric motors, relies on lidar sensors to avoid collisions and navigate its way across fields and terrain.
It's got a lot to appeal to potential customers. The aircraft needs as little as 450 feet of runway space to take off and can spray a 130-acres field in an hour, according to news release. Additionally, its operating costs are just 20% those of piloted planes, according to the press release.
The Pelican is already drawing considerable interest, Pkya said.
"We have multiple active customers around the world with another dozen or so launch customers in the pipeline across both the ag and cargo segments," Chief Commercial Officer Volker Fabian said in the news release.
Pyka has some new funds to fuel production of the Pelican and to support development of a cargo-carrying version according to the news release. It raised $37 million in a Series A round, it announced earlier this week.
Originally based in Palo Alto, the startup participated in Y Combinator's accelerator program in 2017. Its ultimate goal is to offer autonomous passenger flights.
Read on for more Series A funding news from this past week:
Pheast Therapeutics Inc., Palo Alto, $76 million: Catalio Capital Management and Arch Venture Partners led the round for this developer of immunotherapy-based cancer treatments. Alexandria Venture Investments and Risk and Reward also invested.
Adept.ai, San Francisco, $65 million: Greylock Partners and Addition led the round for this operator of an artificial intelligence research lab. Root Ventures, Scott Belsky and Howie Liu also invested.
Brimstone Energy Inc. (dba Brimstone), Oakland, $55 million: Breakthrough Energy Ventures and DCVC led the round for this developer of a process for making cement with reduced carbon emissions. Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Fifth Wall Climate Tech, Collaborative Fund and AccelR8 also invested.
Pyka Inc., Oakland, $37 million: Piva Capital and Prelude Ventures led the round for this developer of autonomous electric crop dusting airplanes.
Foodcast Inc. (dba Food Rocket), Palo Alto, $25 million: Alimentation Couche-Tard led the round for this grocery store operator that promises quick delivery of orders placed online.
BaseTen Labs Inc. (dba BaseTen), San Francisco, $20 million: Greylock Partners led the round for this provider of machine learning models for use in applications. Stripe executives Lachy Groom and Cristina Cordova, Atlassian former President Jay Simon, MongoDV CEO Dev Ittycheria and Plaid Chief Technology Officer Jean-Denis Greze also invested.
Doppler Technologies Inc. (dba Doppler), San Francisco, $20 million: CRV led the round for this provider of data encryption and management software for enterprises. Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator also invested.
Wisq Inc., Redwood City, $20 million: Norwest Venture Partners led the round for this provider of an online service that lets workers socially connect with their colleagues. True Ventures and Shasta Ventures also invested.
Foobar Inc. (dba CommandBar), San Francisco, $19 million: Insight Partners and Itai Tsiddon led the round for this provider of a web interface that allows users to search for and access commands for the apps they use. Thrive Capital and BoxGroup also invested.
Smallstep Labs Inc., San Francisco, $19 million: StepStone Group led the round for this provider of a service that helps companies manage their web security certificates.
Mozart Data Inc., San Francisco, $15 million: Craft Ventures led the round for this provider of data management software. Goldcrest Capital, Spearhead, Apollo Projects and Valor Equity Partners also invested.
Seaplane IO Inc., Mountain View, $15 million: Sequoia Capital led the round for this provider of an app distribution service. 8VC and Atlantic Bridge also invested.
AgentDesks Inc. (dba Radius), San Francisco, $13 million: Crosscut Ventures and NFX led the round for this real estate brokerage.
Zippedi Inc., Burlingame, $12.5 million: Transpose Platform led the round for this developer of a robot that helps retailers keep track of inventory.
