Drone Company Flytrex Closes $7.5 Million Series B Round
Drone-delivery technology company Flytrex announced it has raised $7.5 million in Series B funding, according to a Jan. 8 press release. This round brings the company’s total to $11 million.
Most of the new funds will go toward establishing an on-demand delivery network in Holly Springs, N.C., according to Amit Regev, co-founder and vice president of product. Flytrex is working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration to open a distribution center to service nearby backyards in about a 3-mile radius.
Regev wrote in an e-mail that it was difficult to tell when the center — which will be situated in a shopping mall — will open. He said it would be the world’s first commercial drone-delivery distribution center, which requires FAA approval. Flytrex hopes to begin operating its first delivery route in the first quarter of this year.
The Series B funding round was led by Silicon Valley-based Benhamou Global Ventures, with additional investment from European venture capital firm btov.
“This investment is a vote of confidence in Flytrex’s ongoing success propelling the drone industry forward and in our vision of making UAV delivery the rule rather than the exception,” co-founder and CEO Yariv Bash said.
Flytrex launched the first autonomous urban drone delivery system in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2017. Last year, it opened the first fully operational golf course drone delivery system in North Dakota.
The company markets its solution as “a boon for smaller and midsize retailers looking to keep pace with the e-commerce giants as they now have access to an affordable and efficient drone-based service that will meet consumers’ ever-growing demand for faster deliveries.”
Flytrex is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. — Transport Topics
