Jane Edwards
Skydweller Aero has secured $40 million in a round of Series A financing led by Leonardo, Advection Growth Capital and Marlinspike Capital and will use the funds to further develop its autonomous systems, air vehicles and intelligence and data collection service offerings.
Skydweller said Thursday it also partnered with Palantir Technologies to use the latter’s Foundry enterprise analytics platform to accelerate collection and processing of large data volumes.
“We see Skydweller as the next generation platform of renewably powered aircraft that can be leveraged for intelligence, telecommunications and geospatial data and more,” said Akash Jain, president of Palantir’s USG business.
Oklahoma City-based Skydweller builds solar-powered aircraft for commercial and defense sectors.
Skydweller CEO Robert Miller said investors’ interest in the company reflects a great need for persistent airborne platforms across government and commercial industries.
The company received a contract from Naval Air Systems Command to demonstrate its solar-powered aircraft’s capabilities in long-endurance flight.
