Aerodome has raised $21.5 million in Series A funding to continue building Drone-As-First-Responder (DFR) solutions and growing its engineering and go-to-market teams.
Co-founded by Aerodome CEO and reserve police officer Rahul Sidhu and Aerodome Chief Architect Kenaniah Cerny, the company is ushering in a new era of DFR with a turnkey solution that is faster, safer, and more energy efficient than others on the market.
By providing a fully automated and remote air support operating system, Aerodome equips agencies with a highly advanced, 24/7 solution that reduces the need for patrol officers to respond to calls by 15 percent while offering 80 percent faster response times.
In just a year since its founding, Aerodome has secured contracts with police departments, nearly doubling its earnings projections for Q1 of 2024. The company attributes its rapid growth to its advanced DFR system that is fully remote and automated, multi-station, and multi-drone.
Agencies are using the Aerodome DFR system to accomplish an average 86-second response time to 911 calls, versus the average 7-8 minutes of many precincts reliant on traditional response measures alone. Additionally, with an average of two deaths per year from aviation-related crashes, plus widespread pollution from helicopters, DFR continues to offer a safer, more environmentally conscious supplement to police helicopters.
Aerodome has also secured a new exclusive partnership with Hextronics, a world leader in enabling drone autonomy. Hextronics is supplying a drone dock that is purpose-built for DFR with a rapid, automated battery-changing system, HVAC system, and the ability to operate remotely in any condition.
CRV led the round with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Karman Ventures, Immad Akhund (CEO, Mercury), and Ford Street Ventures. The company raised its seed round in October 2023, led by a16z and 2048 Ventures, bringing its total funding to $28 million.
Saar Gur, General Partner, CRV and Aerodome’s newest board member, said; “Upon experiencing Aerodome’s technology firsthand on a fly-along, I immediately recognized its potential to have a scalable impact on public safety and its ability to save lives. Speed is of the essence in emergencies.
“Aerodome doesn’t just provide police agencies with ROI, it also gives them an insanely valuable source of real-time intelligence to first responders out in the field.”
Sidhu, also a former paramedic, crew chief, and pilot, added; “As the second officer in the country to launch a DFR program, I wanted to build a more advanced, automated solution that would reduce the strain on officer resources. Our DFR 2.0 solution is a true force multiplier, since it only requires a single operator overseeing multiple drones at once.
“Our air traffic awareness system acts as a better observer than human pilots – capable of tracking planes, helicopters, other drones, and even birds in all directions, which saves precious time and resources for agencies.”