Auterion Raises $10 Million for Enterprise Drone OS

Auterion, a drone startup, has successfully raised $10 million in a round of seed funding backed by Lakestar, Mosaic Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, and Tectonic Ventures and  launched its drone OS as an enterprise version of the PX4 open source standard.

The Zurich, Switzerland-based Company will scale its operations and speed up development of its platform from the money raised. Auterion intends to continue working closely with the PX4 community; the most popular open source drone autopilot software, that brings the technology to the enterprise.

Drones applications are omnipresent these days however they lack a common operating system. This causes complications with interoperability between drones and services and makes compliance with drone safety regulations and cyber security more complicated, which is why Auterion built its software. Auterion was cofounded by Lorenz Meier​, creator of Pixhawk and founder of PX4; and Sartori​, who has a UC Berkeley MBA and is a drone industry veteran from Silicon Valley.

Product Image – Auterion Insights – Analytics Dashboard

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our open source operating system for commercial drones and that we raised a $10m seed investment from leading investors. We will continue to innovate in close alignment with the #PX4 developer community. #droneOShttps://t.co/jcgQvNKqQa pic.twitter.com/MYGHpstuS7

— Auterion (@auterion) September 4, 2018

“Autonomy will change the status quo and enable use cases that are unthinkable today, unlocking the next level of value,” said Auterion cofounder Kevin Satori, in a statement. “Our technology scales from drones to any other autonomous system, such as self driving delivery rovers.”

Auterion is working closely with other Dronecode members, including 3D Robotics, AirMap, ARM, Intel, NXP, Sony, STMicroelectronics, and Trimble to enable the highest possible levels of integration between products. The Auterion OS allows manufacturers to build their products on global and safe standards using common infrastructure which enables them to focus on their core differentiation and save time and resources when bringing new products to market. Likewise, component, software, module, and service vendors are empowered to rapidly create unique and competitive solutions, by providing a compatible ecosystem allows developers to integrate their products.

“There are important challenges that today’s market leader will encounter as they attempt to meet the diverse needs of the global drone marketplace,” said Ray Johnson, former chief technology officer of Lockheed Martin, in a statement. “Auterion, with its open software platform, is well positioned to dynamically respond to the wide range of solutions required for commercial and defence applications,” he added.

Similarly, the Auterion cloud enables drone service providers to fly with confidence, monitor devices, and support a diverse range of drones and drone technologies for mission critical applications. “Every successful open source ecosystem needs enterprise software vendors to make the work of the community accessible to the industry,” said Chris Anderson, CEO of drone maker 3D Robotics, in a statement. “The creation of Auterion shows that the Dronecode Project is mature and PX4 is ready for the enterprise.”

Auterion’s operating system is available as a subscription service (SaaS) encompassing three main components: the software that runs on the drone, a cloud-based analytics suite for device and fleet management, and the enterprise customer success program. The company is showing the software at the InterDrone event in Las Vegas later this week.