Shield AI Receives $60 Million Funding to Develop Defense Autonomous Flying Systems

According to reports,  military technology company Shield AI has secured $60 million in funding at a $2.3 billion valuation to develop autonomous flying systems for the US military and its allies. The most recent funding brings Shield AI's Series E round of funding to a total of $225 million. Shield AI revealed the previous $165 million tranche in June, valuing the company at $2.3 billion. Riot Ventures, Breyer Capital, SVB Capital, Disruptive, Andreesen Horowitz, Homebrew, Snowpoint Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and numerous other investors are just a few of the others that have previously invested in the firm. The US Pacific Fleet is situated in San Diego, which is also referred to as the Silicon Valley of the defence industry, according to reports Shield AI's purchase of Martin UAV in July of last year and its most recent acquisition of Heron Systems are evidence that the defence startup has been growing quickly over the previous few years. [caption id="attachment_71961" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image: Getty[/caption] Shield AI is well-known for its Hivemind autonomy stack, which it describes as "A Top Gun for every aircraft" on its website. It uses a variety of high-tech features, including state estimation, mapping, and computer vision techniques in unmanned systems for military applications. Shield AI also houses the V-BAT, a highly developed VTOL drone with a maximum carrying capacity of 25 pounds and up to 11 hours of flight duration. A number of important people serve on the Shield AI board of directors, including Andrew Berlin of Berlin Packaging and Brian Losey, a 33-year Navy veteran. [caption id="attachment_71962" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Image: Shield AI[/caption] The US Department of Defense Program of Record includes the military tech firm. It is working on a number of initiatives, including VTOL autonomous aircraft hardware and software as well as swarming capabilities, to assist its clients in communicating when their signals are disrupted. Since 2018, the Nova drone and its Hivemind AI system have been in use, albeit it is still unclear for what reason.