Skygauge Robotics develops industrial inspection drones that can make direct contact with pipes, pressure vessels and storage containers to detect subsurface cracks, claiming up to an 80% reduction in time on site and improved operator safety. The company’s drones use a patented thrust-vectoring design that provides six degrees of freedom, enabling more stable physical work than typical camera-focused drones. Skygauge was co-founded in 2016 by CEO Nikita Iliushkin, chief designer Linar Ismagilov, and CTO Maksym Korol. The startup closed a C$3.3M seed round in October and has C$3.8M in total funding after an earlier C$500K pre-seed (which included $250K USD from HAX’s Seed Program) and friends-and-family contributions. In response to increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is immediately scaling hiring and plans to add eight team members while finalizing a new facility with a full lab and office. Once established in the inspection market, Skygauge plans to expand its platform into physical jobs such as painting, spraying, pressure washing, drilling, paint removal, high-rise window washing, welding and general construction. Skygauge develops large industrial drones using tiltable-rotor technology that enables maneuvers traditional quadcopters cannot. The Canadian team participated in HAX and has spent time working out of Shenzhen, where it also competed at TechCrunch’s hardware battlefield. The company opened pre-orders with planned deliveries in 2021 and is taking refundable $1,000 deposits. Skygauge says it has lined up 100 potential customers and scheduled demos with 10 Fortune 500 companies. The startup raised $400,000 in pre-seed funding and plans to raise more. Co-founder and CEO Nikita Iliushkin says the goal is to get people out of dangerous environments, a message that has gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Total raised

$3M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Dec 2020