SiFly lands $20M to scale US-made long-endurance drones
What's the deal? SiFly AviationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised a $20 million Series A led by Shield CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with participation from QuditDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, BBK CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Alumni Ventures. The Santa Clara-based startup will use the funds to scale US production and customer deliveries of its Q12 long-endurance electric aircraft.
What's the endgame? The Q12 flies four times longer and up to 10 times farther than leading enterprise drones, while carrying payloads of up to 10 pounds. One flight lasted three hours, 11 minutes, and 54 seconds — earning SiFlyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → the Guinness World Record for the longest flight by an electric multirotor aircraft in its weight class.
What does SiFly do? It combines the vertical takeoff and precision hover of a multirotor drone with the efficiency, range, and speed of a fixed-wing aircraft. The company is also developing DronePort, a multi-drone infrastructure system for continuous operations.
The company targets sectors where endurance improves economics: public safety, utilities and infrastructure inspection, and agriculture. "For drone operators, greater endurance translates into faster response, broader coverage and lower cost per mission," said Ray Rothrock of Shield Capital.
Why now? Geopolitical competition and supply-chain concerns are pushing demand for high-performance drones designed and built in the US. Commercial operators and public agencies want trusted domestic alternatives at prices that support wide deployment.
What's next? The funding will expand manufacturing and supply-chain capabilities, support initial deliveries, and advance DronePort's development and field validation. SiFly also plans to grow its go-to-market, customer-operations, and regulatory teams.
The signal: As agencies and enterprises look to replace foreign hardware, demand is shifting toward domestic drone makers that pair long endurance with deployable economics. SiFly is betting that "helicopter-like performance at drone economics," as founder and chief executive officer Brian Hinman puts it, will define the next wave of mission-critical operations.
Read more: prnewswire.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
