Airware (incorporated as Unmanned Innovation, Inc.) was an American venture-funded startup that provided commercial
unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
s for enterprises. The company ceased operations on September 14, 2018.
Airware was founded in 2011 in
Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...
, by
Jonathan Downey. The company relocated to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in January 2014.
The company produced enterprise drones which combine hardware,
on-aircraft and mobile software, and
cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may co ...
services. Downey has stated the company is focused on building systems for drones for commercial uses, including
anti-poaching
Anti-poaching is the organised act to counter the poaching of wildlife. However, it is generally used to describe an overall effort against the illegal wildlife trade. The act of anti-poaching is normally carried out by national parks on public l ...
efforts, infrastructure inspections, and
precision agriculture
Precision agriculture (PA) is a farming management strategy based on observing, measuring and responding to temporal and spatial variability to improve agricultural production sustainability. It is used in both crop and livestock production. P ...
.
History
Airware was founded by Downey in 2011 out of a frustration with the "inflexible and costly" autopilot systems for unmanned aircraft.
Airware was
incubated at both Lemnos Labs and
Y Combinator
Y Combinator (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator launched in March 2005. It has been used to launch more than 3,000 companies, including Airbnb, Coinbase, Cruise, DoorDash, Dropbox, Instacart, Quora, PagerDuty, Reddit, Str ...
. In March 2016, the company announced a $30 million Series C round of financing led by Next World Capital with Andreessen Horowitz,
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneurs ...
and
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...
executive chairman
John T. Chambers
John Thomas Chambers (born August 23, 1949) is the former executive chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems.
Early life
Chambers was born on August 23, 1949, in Cleveland, Ohio to John Tuner "Jack" and June Chambers. His mother was a psychiatrist and ...
.
Andreessen Horowitz partner
Martin Casado
MartÃn Casado is a Spanish-born American software engineer, entrepreneur, and investor. He is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and was a pioneer of software-defined networking, and a co-founder of Nicira Networks.
Early life and educatio ...
, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner
Mike Abbott, and John T. Chambers are members of the company's board.
In 2015, Airware launched a new venture fund for commercial drones to support "scaling the use of drones across a variety of commercial applications." Airware purchased Redbird, a drone analytics software company, in 2016. On September 14, 2018, Airware announced it was ceasing operations effective immediately.
Products and services
Airware offered
enterprise
Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to:
Business and economics
Brands and enterprises
* Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company
* Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company
* Enterprise ...
drone services combining hardware, on-aircraft and mobile software, and cloud services for industries like mining, insurance, and construction. Airware offered navigation software for drones, table software to guide and monitors drones in flight, and cloud services to store and manage the information gathered by drones. Where most software is designed for specific models of drones, Airware was developing a platform that enables compatibility across aircraft. The company previously collaborated with commercial drone manufacturers to integrate its autopilot hardware and software, then consulted directly with enterprise clients to identify solutions and to ensure regulatory compliance.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
"Why Is America Losing the Commercial Drone Wars?" June/July/August 2015. ''
Washington Monthly
''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alternat ...
''.
*
*
"Caterpillar invests in Airware bringing drone tech to mining and construction enterprises" February 2, 2017.
TechCrunch
TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare.
In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...
.
* {{cite web , last=Benton , first=Dale , title=Reach for the sky: Airware and the future of drones in the mining industry , website=Mining Global , date=March 17, 2017 , url=http://www.miningglobal.com/technology/reach-sky-airware-and-future-drones-mining-industry , access-date=June 8, 2017
External links
Official website
Aerospace companies of the United States
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
2011 establishments in California
Companies established in 2011
Unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturers