GE Ventures invests in drone technology

Airware, a drones software company which sells to the agriculture and other industries, has received an undisclosed amount from GE Ventures, the venture capital arm of technology giant General Electric.

GE is not the first established technology multinational to invest venture capital into agtech. Intel Capital, the venture investment arm of the computer processor giant Intel, recently invested in PrecisionHawk, an agriculture drones company.

“The UAV space is something that we feel is going to revolutionise productivity,” commented Sue Siegel and Alex Tepper of GE Ventures, in an interview with Airware. “We’re interested in evolving the field services business and commercial UAVs fit nicely into that.” Drone software platforms such as Airware are improving data collection for industry, which has so far been fragmented, with multiple different functions and applications for customers to master, according to Siegel and Tepper.

This adds to Airware’s successful $25 million Series B which closed in July this year, when venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Cauldfield & Byers both committed to the round.