Counter-drone company Dedrone attracts $15 million in new funds

By Patrick C. Miller | February 16, 2017

Drone security company Dedrone announced this week that it secured $15 million in funding to boost its rapid expansion into the counter-drone market.

The Series B funding round was led by Felicis Ventures and John Chambers, executive chairman of Cisco, who personally invested in the company. According to Dedrone, the new capital will be used to increase marketing and sales efforts, as well as investing in global research and development.

“Drones have given people the ability to go places where they have never been before and at times, circumnavigate traditional physical and cyber security installations,” Chambers said. “Dedrone’s unique approach to use existing sensors and a powerful machine-learning platform empowers enterprise and federal customers to regain control of their airspace.”

Dedrone provides security solutions for airspace vulnerabilities exploited by consumer and commercial drone technology. Its software platform detects aerial intrusions, provides early warning of malicious drone activities and is used to protect data centers, prisons, airports and other critical facilities from, corporate espionage, smuggling, terrorism and hacking.

Joerg Lamprecht, Dedrone CEO, founded the company in 2014. It’s headquartered in San Francisco and has production, research and development facilities in Kassel, Germany.

“I’m very proud of our team of world-class innovators and engineers, who are committed every day to build this business and advance the security market’s understanding of the risks associated with drone operations,” Lamprecht said. “Together with our partners, we’re making massive strides in providing businesses and individuals a complete detection and counter-drone solution for high-risk areas.”

Aydin Senkut, founder and managing director of Felicis Ventures, the company invested in Dedrone because it believes drone security will become a top priority for business and government worldwide.

“We were really impressed by the technology, team, customers and potential market for Dedrone,” he said. “It's normal for us to get excited about just one or two of those factors but much rarer to find all in one company.”