Commercial drone company PrecisionHawk shutting down

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PrecisionHawk, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based developer of commercial drones, is shutting down. In mid-December 2023, the company voluntarily filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The Robot Report reached out to PrecisionHawk but hadn’t received a response at press time.

Filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy indicates a company no longer has plans to continue operating. According to the filing, PrecisionHawk has about $17 million of debt and assets of about $3.8 million. According to LinkedIn, it has between 51 and 200 employees.

Founded in 2010, PrecisionHawk was once a promising drone startup. It raised more than $136 million since it was founded, including a $32 million Series E round in 2019.

PrecisionHawk had customers in a variety of industries, including agriculture, energy, and telecommunications. Some of its applications for agriculture, for example, included counting crops, quantifying plant health and maximizing yield. It said another leading application is inspecting telecommunications towers and electricity distribution lines.

The company offers an integrated platform of drone and sensor hardware and flight and analytics software services. The data is collected by the drones and is turned into actionable intelligence using the company’s software.

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Earlier in 2023, PrecisionHawk was acquired by Field Group, a European company focused on data analysis solutions for the infrastructure, construction, environment, and public service sectors. At the time of the deal, Field Group said PrecisionHawk would eventually take on the “Field Group” name but that its Raleigh headquarters would remain open. Field made the acquisition to further expand its services in the United States.

In a September 2023 company update, however, Field Group decided to shut down the PrecisionHawk office in Raleigh.

“We knew it would be a challenge to make PrecisionHawk profitable in the short term,” said Field Group CEO Krister Pedersen. “Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t turn it around in time, and we have had to close the office. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was a necessary one.”

PrecisionHawk also facilitated drone integration into the airspace with various patents for unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) systems. It was founded under the name “WineHawk” and focused its early efforts on using drones to keep birds away from vineyards.

News of PrecisionHawk’s bankruptcy was first reported by Triangle Business Journal.