The round, which brings the total amount raised by the company since its commercial debut in 2016 to almost $90m, was led by Horizons Ventures, with participation from existing investors Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Lux Capital, Social Capital, and The Schmidt Family Foundation.
The company intends to use the funds to scale up its global fleet of ocean drones to monitor the state of the planet in real time.
Led by CEO Richard Jenkins, Saildrone is building ocean infrastructure to provide critical data for understanding the weather, managing fish populations, and enabling in-situ ocean science. Since its inception, the company has partnered with US agencies such as NOAA and NASA to provide high-quality ocean observations and now, as part of its expansion, announced a multi-year collaboration with Australia-based CSIRO and the opening of operations in the Southern Ocean from Hobart, Tasmania.
Saildrone has also opened a 200,000 square foot advanced manufacturing facility in Alameda, CA.
FinSMEs
15/05/2018