Skywatch Drone Safety Platform Receives $2M Seed Funding

Skywatch has declared they have raised $2 million from investors Verizon Ventures, F2 Capital and Kaedan Capital. SkyWatch intends to use the raised capital to further develop its robust data analytics platform which enables drone service providers to track important safety metrics during flight planning, flight execution and post-flight. The SkyWatch innovation also allows the creation of customized insurance solutions, and also assists drone operators with tracking their safety metrics, decreasing flight risks during the preflight, in-flight (real time) and post-flight time. The intended outcome is that drone service providers can concentrate on operating more safely, and at lower costs. Sky-Watch’s R&D comprises unmanned systems, advanced embedded control software, integrated industrial design and intuitive user interfaces.

“Goldman Sachs expects the drone industry to grow by $100 billion over the next five years as more businesses rely on them to complete tasks,” said Tomer Kashi, CEO & Co-Founder of SkyWatch. “Safety is often cited as one of the top setbacks for industry growth. SkyWatch will revolutionize drone safety by giving operators a holistic, one-stop solution to manage their flight safety. As more pilots improve their safety standards, regulators will lower the bar and open the skies to more operators, thus expanding this already emerging market.”

The SkyWatch app will be for business as well as recreational operators available on iOS and Android by the first quarter of 2018. The application will allow operators to receive real-time hazard warnings by connecting the software to their unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of choice. The app then calculates a proprietary “safety score” for each flight, based on the operator’s behavior. The collected data could then be used to set an industry benchmark for operators to create awareness of how they fly, and to improve their score as they practice better, safer flights.

“As a global leader in fleet management and mobile workforce solutions, we appreciate the importance of AI driven solutions to planning, executing and analyzing mobility while mitigating risk and cutting costs,” said Roni Burrell, Director at Verizon Ventures Israel.

SkyWatch’s software platform makes use of many data sources and AI based algorithms for risk analysis. 30 drone sensors have been developed to predetermine and prevent potential anticipated failures, and be used for granulated local weather mapping (wind, precipitation, and temperature), for 3-D airspace and ground mapping, and for crowd density mapping as well.

“Our discussions with other drone industry leaders all point to the need and demand for the SkyWatch risk management and insurance solution,” said Barak Rabinowitz, Managing Partner of F2 Capital. “2018 will be a big year for mainstream commercial adoption of drones and Skywatch is well positioned to help pave the way.”

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