San Diego, USA-based defence technology company building the world’s best AI pilot for aircraft, Shield AI, raised an additional amount of funding in Series F. The company announced the investment on December 29, 2023. With the latest proceeds, the total Series F funding amounts to USD 500 million. The company raised an additional USD 100 million in equity, raised at the Series F price, along with debt from Hercules Capital of USD 200 million. It initially closed USD 200M in equity in November.
Purpose of financing for Shield AI
Shield AI’s flagship product, Hivemind, is an AI pilot. The product enables teams of intelligent aircraft to operate as well as complete missions autonomously in high-threat environments. It operates without the need for remote operators or GPS. Hivemind is an aircraft-agnostic autonomy stack similar to the self-driving technology found in cars. It has flown quadcopters, the MQ-35A V-BAT, as well as the F-16. For the year 2024, there are plans to fly Kratos’ XQ-58 Valkyrie. Shield AI also accumulated more autonomous flight hours executing fighter jet manoeuvres, like dogfighting, than any company in the world.
Recently, Shield AI launched V-BAT Teams, a first-of-its-kind software product powered by Hivemind. It further enables teams of V-BATs to execute missions, autonomously reading as well as reacting to each other and the environment just as a team of humans would normally pilot them.
What the company’s official has to add
Ryan Tseng, Shield AI’s CEO and co-founder, said, “AI pilots are becoming a strategic conventional deterrent in class with our aircraft carriers and guided missile submarines. But interestingly, it’s the first strategic deterrent that is software-defined and has only recently become possible because of advances in AI and computing power. That’s a huge paradigm shift for aerospace and defence.”
In addition, Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s President, co-founder, and former Navy SEAL, commented, “The defense and investment communities are seeing the profound impact AI pilots will have on national security and global stability. AI pilots solve the electronic warfare (GPS- and communications-jamming) problem that’s devastating 10,000 drones per month in the Russia-Ukraine War, and they enable the operating concept of intelligent, affordable mass, where swarms of affordable aircraft can accomplish missions normally reserved for expensive, exquisite aircraft.”
About the company
Andrew Reiter, Brandon Tseng, and Ryan Tseng launched the company in 2015. Shield AI is a venture-backed defence technology company. It is on a mission to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Currently, Shield AI is building the world’s best AI pilot. Its AI pilot, Hivemind, has flown a fighter jet (F-16), a vertical takeoff and landing drone (V-BAT), and a quadcopter (Nova).
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