Shield AI last Friday said it has raised an additional $300 million in venture capital that will be used to accelerate the deployment of its artificial intelligence pilot software on more aircraft.
The new funding, which is a combination of equity and venture debt, brings Shield AI’s Series F funding round to $500 million. Last November, the company said it had closed the funding round at $200 million.
Shield AI said that scaling the company’s Hivemind AI pilot software across different classes of aircraft is a response to customer demand. The AI pilot allows aircraft to operate autonomously, an asset for conducting missions in contested environments.
So far, Hivemind has been integrated into the company’s MQ-35A V-BAT unmanned aircraft system (UAS), quadcopters, and the F-16 fighter. Shield AI is currently integrating Hivemind into Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’ [KTOS] XQ-58 Valkyrie stealthy, jet-powered UAS.
Integration of Hivemind on the XQ-58 is ahead of schedule and will fly on the aircraft in 2024, a Shield AI spokeswoman told
Defense Daily last week.
The additional Series F funding includes $200 million in debt from Hercules Capital and $100 million from undisclosed equity investors. The earlier funding round was led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund and Riot Ventures and is being used to scale the company’s V-BAT Teams offering, which allows multiple V-BAT aircraft to autonomously operate in swarms, with the aircraft reacting to one another and their environment.
Last October, Shield AI said it had completed testing and demonstrations of the V-BAT Teams concept. Initially, Shield AI said Hivemind will be used by teams of four V-BATs with a goal to double the number of drones annually.
The earlier funding round was also aimed at helping Shield AI integrate Hivemind into other aircraft. Brandon Tseng, the company’s co-founder and president, told Defense Daily last fall that Shield AI is looking to add Hivemind to all group 5 aircraft, which are UAS weighing more than 1,320 pounds that can operate above 18,000 feet. V-BAT is a group 3 drone that weighs 125 pounds.
V-BAT Teams will be on the battlefield in 2024, Shield AI said.