Drone and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) technology company Terra Drone Corporation announced today that it has raised $70 million (8 billion Japanese yen) in Series B funding with investments from Mitsui & Co., Ltd., SBI Investment Co., Ltd., Tokyu Land Corporation, Kyushu Electric Power T&D, and Seika Corporation. The round also saw the funding by Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development (JOIN) – a public-private infrastructure fund by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) – to the newly established joint venture, as well as participation from existing investor Venture Lab Investment.
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“Our airspace is going to get more crowded than ever, but most companies today are concentrating only on hardware development,” says Toru Tokushige, founder and CEO of Terra Drone. “There’s an urgent need for a global air traffic management solution to enable safe and efficient drone and UAM operations, and Terra Drone aims to be the leading player building the digital infrastructure in the sky.”
To that end, Terra Drone has been working with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to coordinate flight management of both crewed and uncrewed aircraft.
Meanwhile, in the drone inspection vertical, Netherlands-based group company Terra Inspectioneering is serving Oil and Gas production and processing companies such as Shell, BASF, and Bunge. In Southeast Asia, Terra Drone offers survey, inspection, and surveillance services through group company Terra Drone Indonesia whose clients include Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and AECOM.
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The company is further enhancing safety and efficiency in many other industries by implementing drone-based solutions worldwide.
“A focus on increasing recurring revenue through the sale of survey-grade hardware and cloud based software such as Terra LiDAR; providing specialized solutions such as ultrasonic thickness (UT) measurements and non-destructive testing (NDT) using drones through Terra Inspectioneering; and a strategic consolidation of overseas business has made us well-positioned for success. With this latest round of funding, we will be able to scale up operations and innovate faster,” Tokushige says.
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