Gladius Drone by Chasing Innovation
Chasing Innovation, the underwater dronemaker who last year raised over 1600% of their funding goal for submersible drone Gladius on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, has now secured a further $US3 million from a major Chinese technology investor.
The concept of being able to photograph the ocean (or river, or lake) beneath is one that often captures the imagination of crowdfunding types.
It only takes a simple search to see that underwater unmanned vehicles (UUVs) have a tendency to succeed with swimming colours on crowdfunding campaigns – take for instance the Fifish, the Biki and the Nemo.
It appears the investor – Shenzhen Capital Group Co (SCGC), who also have autonomous truck developer Suning under their investment belt – thinks the same.
Chasing Innovation, who are headquartered in Shenzhen, join a growing number of innovative technology companies receiving big funding from the venture investment company, such as Suning, Dublin-based blockchain startup Aid:Tech, and US maker of desktop 3D printers, Formlabs.
The company, who design the core components of their flagship drone, Gladius, in-house, boast a supply chain managed by ex-LG and Foxconn professionals (interestingly , Fifish’s CEO Belinda Zhang also hails from Foxconn).
“Our partnership with Shenzhen Capital Group will help accelerate our growth into new markets while better positioning us to execute on our mission to develop and manufacture accessible, portable and high-tech underwater drones,” said Chasing Innovation CMO Jacky Yang.
“We’re pleased that a respected, long-term partner like Shenzhen Capital Group shares our view about the incredible opportunities ahead for the submersible drone product category.”
Chasing Innovation say that the new funding will allow them to conduct reasearch and development into new products, helping them to reach their goal of being a world leader in the underwater drone market, and they are open to new partnerships to further concrete their technologies.