Energize Ventures announced a new milestone in its partnership with DroneDeploy, co-leading a $50 million Series E financing round with AirTree. This brings DroneDeploy's total capital raised to $142 million. The funds will be used to expand into Europe, enhance products beyond aerial capture, and explore strategic acquisitions. DroneDeploy has seen significant growth, with a 259% increase in enterprise users in 2020, and continues to innovate with new product features.

DroneDeploy last week announced nationwide approval for beyond visual line-of-sight, or BVLOS, inspection operations for critical infrastructure. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s waiver enables the company’s customers to legally and remotely deploy and monitor autonomous drones.More than 80% of the top 50 U.S. general contractors use DroneDeploy’s platform, it said. Leading hyperscale data center developers use the company’s drones to provide detailed aerial monitoring and analysis of infrastructure and construction projects.“As the AI boom fuels massive investment in critical infrastructure, DroneDeploy provides targeted monitoring and data analysis to help ensure these projects are delivered on time and on budget,” stated Mike Winn, co-founder and CEO of DroneDeploy.“Our BVLOS capabilities allow us to put fully autonomous drones on job sites, to enable our customers to accelerate construction timelines, and enhance speed, safety, and quality across large-scale data center developments,” he added. “From site selection to mapping underground utilities, interior systems installation, and through close-out, we cover every phase of development for these mission-critical facilities.”Without a waiver, BVLOS flights are currently illegal