Skyqraft Secures $2.2M Seed Funding for Powerline Inspection

Skyqraft, a Swedish company pioneering the use of artificial intelligence and drone technology for electricity powerline assessments, has secured $2.2 million in seed funding. These funds will be allocated to the continued refinement of their technology and the broadening of their service reach throughout Europe and the United States.

Subvenio Invest spearheaded the seed investment round, with further contributions from Antler, a previous pre-seed investor, Next Human Ventures, and a group of undisclosed private investors.

Established in March 2019 and publicly available since September of the same year, Skyqraft delivers what they describe as “intelligent” inspections for powerline infrastructure. Their approach combines drone-based data collection with AI-powered analysis to automatically identify potential hazards.

This represents a departure from conventional methods, which typically involve inspection teams utilizing helicopters and manual labor – a process that is both time-intensive and carries inherent safety risks. Skyqraft’s core objective is to facilitate powerline inspections that are safer, more economical, and more ecologically sound.

“Traditional powerline inspections are not environmentally sound, are very expensive, and pose safety concerns due to the reliance on helicopters and personnel,” explained Sakina Turabali, co-founder and CMO of Skyqraft, in a previous statement to TechCrunch regarding their pre-seed funding. “We offer intelligent infrastructure inspections through the use of unmanned aircraft, capturing images and 360-degree videos, and then processing this data with a machine learning system to automatically pinpoint any risks to the powerlines.”

Skyqraft asserts that their system is capable of handling substantial amounts of visual data and accurately identifying equipment problems “quickly and reliably”. According to the Swedish firm, employing Skyqraft can reduce the time required to inspect a 25km powerline from two days to just “three minutes”.

This value proposition is already gaining traction with clients, including the three leading utility providers in Sweden, collectively controlling 85% of the Swedish market. Furthermore, Skyqraft reports that they are currently in discussions to implement larger-scale pilot programs in the U.S. in 2021 with Iberdrola, a global energy company.