On Monday, Saildrone, a California startup that makes unmanned surface vehicles (USV’s, or sailing drones), announced that it has successfully closed a $100 million Series C venture capital round. The round was led by BOND, the growth-tech VC fund spun off from Kleiner Perkins by longtime tech securities analyst Mary Meeker, along with new investors XN, Standard Investments, Emerson Collective, and Crowley Maritime Corporation. Existing investors Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Lux Capital, Social Capital, and Tribe Capital re-upped their commitments for the round.The new capital brings Saildrone’s total funding to $190 million.
Saildrone says it plans to use the funds to grow its data insight team and scale go-to-market functions to meet rising demand for ocean domain intelligence.
Founded in 2012, Saildrone manufacturers its own USV’s, but its business model and revenues are derived from the data collected from these autonomous vessels, which are equipped with advanced sensors and machine learning (ML) technology, and are powered mostly by renewable wind and solar power to reduce their carbon footprint. They are also remarkably resilient, capable of sailing more than 500,000 nautical miles and logging more than 15,000 days at sea in some of the harshest conditions on the planet. Last month, Saildrone and the National Oceanic and Atmopshere Administration (NOAA) released the first-ever video footage gathered by an USV from inside a major hurricane, Hurricane Sam, as it successfully gathered scientific data. Saildrone has a fleet of five so-called “hurricane saildrones” equipped with special wings that enable these research vessels to operate in extreme wind conditions.
In addition to data applications in climate intelligence and high-res bathymetric mapping of the ocean floor, Saildrone has also developed machine learning applications for use in marine domain awareness operations for law enforcement and homeland security, fields where this data can be used to police illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, provide and ensure marine sanctuary, and to conduct counternarcotics operations.
Along with these applications, figures from the OECD and provided by Saildrone value the fast-growing, maritime “Blue Economy” at $1.5 trillion a year and creating the equivalent of 31 million full-time jobs.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Saildrone as they build out the future of maritime intelligence, drawing on their unique technological differentiation and expansive mission history to serve customers across diverse industries,” said BOND General Partner Noah Knauf, who will join the company’s board.
“We are honored to have the BOND team and our new investors join our journey,” said Saildrone founder and CEO Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and CEO. “The combination of the most tried and tested autonomous ocean technology with the partnership of some of the most experienced venture capitalists in the world consolidates our industry leadership and enables our rapid growth path to meet the needs of our customers.”
