Jane Edwards
Shield AI has secured $210 million in equity financing as part of Series D funding round led by Austin, Texas-based technology investor Disruptive and will use the funds to invest in artificial intelligence capabilities for military aircraft and advance growth initiatives across defense and commercial sectors.
“The funding round enables Shield AI to move one step closer to its goal of becoming a 21st century defense prime through a software first approach, where products derive a strong competitive advantage from an autonomy and artificial intelligence backbone, similar to what you see across the consumer product market, where great hardware is differentiated through great software,” Ryan Tseng, co-founder and CEO of Shield AI, said in a statement published Tuesday.
The new funding round came a month after Shield AI announced its acquisition of Heron Systems and Martin UAV.
Shield AI’s Hivemind software is a self-driving autonomy stack designed to enable military and commercial aircraft to perform flight maneuvers and other operations in areas where GPS and communications capabilities are limited. The company’s hardware products include V-BAT and Nova unmanned aircraft systems.
Shield AI said the management team expects the company to receive an additional $15 million in equity and $75 million in debt in the next few weeks.
Point72 Ventures and other venture capital firms also participated in the Series D financing round.
