Aerial Applications closed a $4.5M equity funding round

Washington, D.C.-based Aerial Applications has closed a $4.5 million equity funding round with participation from angel investors, Austin-based Capital Factory and personal investors. This is the company’s first major funding raise since relocating to the District last year.

“Since relocating to DC we’ve built a number of very exciting relationships, and I believe this funding round reflects our investors’ confidence in the direction we’re headed,” Jeff Brooks, the company’s CMO, told Technical.ly.

The tech startup collects and processes data from drones, and builds software that makes using that data easy for businesses. During Hurricane Florence, Aerial Applications deployed 20 drones in an effort to gain images to aid in recovery missions.

Brooks said the company is using the funding to hire more engineers to add to its team and some will go toward ramping up its marketing efforts. He said Aerial Applications also has open positions in sales, AI, project management and front and back end developers.

In March, the company joined Verizon’s 5G First Responder Lab, an incubator program designed to give startups and other innovators access to 5G technology to develop, test and refine 5G solutions.

“We’ve found the program to be hugely beneficial. As part of the program, we’re getting early access to 5G hardware technology and the engineers behind it, which you can imagine is game-changing for us. On the technical side, that means our software and data products will be that much better positioned to be 5G-native when those networks come online,” Brooks said.

The Aerial Applications team is presenting at the Verizon 5G First Responder Lab Cohort Day on May 20 in New York City, where they are going to showcase the differences between 4G and 5G technology for the drone industry. Brooks said the company is also rolling out city-wide mapping coverage for various cities across the U.S.