We are pleased to announce that one of our portfolio startups, Flirtey – a premier delivery service using flying robots to deliver food, medicine, gifts, first-aid, books and mail has raised $12M in Series A round. When we invested in Flirtey less than two years ago, we were confident that it would fly high and deliver just like its drones. Good luck Flirtey!
Flirtey’s Series A round was led by the company’s seed investors, Menlo Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures, and joined by Chris Sacca’s Lowercase Capital, Y Combinator and World Innovation Lab, a firm that counts among its limited partners the Japanese airline ANA, Goodwater Capital, Amity Ventures and Partech Ventures.
Flirtey’s CEO, Matthew Sweeny said the company’s drone was designed with reliability and safety as priorities, obviously. Its flagship UAV is a hexacopter that can fly right if one of its six motors is taken out. It has two batteries, and can run if one of them fails, as well. The drone lowers a payload in a box from about 50 feet over a customer’s doorstep or other designated delivery area. If a would-be drone thief attempts to pull it down by the line, the drone detaches and safely fly away, Sweeny explained.
Flirtey was also the first company to attain FAA approvals to conduct a drone delivery in the US in 2015. That fact helped it land one of its drones in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, a milestone that CEO Matthew Sweeny calls a “kittyhawk” moment for the startup.
Please read full story at TechCrunch.