Philadelphia-based robotics company Asilon announced Tuesday it has raised a $26 million Series B led by Insight Partners, with participation from veteran venture capital, Allenion Ventures and Gopa Fund.
Asilon started out as a drone company to secure facilities. It is best known for its drones with robotic arms that allow you to change your own battery.
However, there is also a robot guard dog service called Dronedog. Asylon employs the famous Boston Dynamics robot dogspot and modify it to integrate with guard work and command and control guardian software. Asylon offers drones, dogs and software as Robot Security as a Service (RAAS).
Sites can be fixed on ground patrols via robotic dogs and flying cameras that cover more areas than stationary cameras. Drone dogs can be sent to places that are unsafe for humans and real dogs. It can also perform tasks like sniffing in dogs, such as gas leaks and detecting dangerous chemicals.
Founded in 2015, the company has not raised much venture capital prior to this, compared to other drone and robotics companies. It previously raised about $21 million, plus government grants, raising the total to about $45 million, founder CEO Damon Henry told TechCrunch.
Henry described the fundraiser as hard after killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December, but the company has increased spending on the security of CEO homes and facilities such as Dronedog. That RAA costs around $100,000 to $150,000 a year. This is similar to hiring a human bodyguard service.
“I went to an event, a tech week event in New York last summer, and I happened to meet all the investors in the round at that event,” Henry said. When he decided to raise him, he had a warm intro with investors who already realised that security spending was on the rise.
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Henry and his two co-founders, Adam Mohamed (CTO) and Brent McLaughlin (COO), were roommates in the dorms at MIT. However, unlike the classic Silicon Valley story, they did not fall out. They went to work as aerospace engineers after graduating from companies such as GE Aviation, Boeing and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
In 2015, three friends saw Amazon unveil a drone delivery service and inspired them. They quit their jobs and founded Asilon. By 2019 they had their first customer, Ford.
And in 2021, startups suffered almost quick deaths. Ford had agreed to let them have a live demonstration event showing how their drones worked at the facility. A Fortune 500 group had signed up to watch the demonstration, Henry recalled.
The night before the event, a drone crashed and was destroyed. Henry saw his company flash right in front of his eyes. There are no customers. end.
A dedicated employee drove all night to deliver another drone, but the founder had little precious time to drive it. Miraculously, they did and it worked perfectly during the event.
“The system was consistent and flew perfectly all day,” he said. “We got the next three customers, the Fortune 500 customers. Then, at the same time, we actually got our first DOD contract for the drone.”
The founder has since grown the company with caution. Asylon currently employs 65 and is deploying the system in 15 states, he said.
