Oakland, Calif.- April 26, 2022: Electric autonomous airplane manufacturer Pyka is pleased to announce it has closed a $37M (USD) Series A funding round with lead investment from Piva Capital and Prelude Ventures . The funds will support serial production of Pyka’s Pelican aircraft to committed buyers and fund investment in research and development to expand the company’s products into the cargo market.
“We are extremely pleased with this successful raise and the opportunities it affords Pyka to rapidly boost our manufacturing and begin executing on our more than $320 million in MOUs and commercial agreements from customers,” says Pyka CEO Michael Norcia.
Based in Oakland, Calif., Pyka developed the world’s first and only commercially certified electric autonomous airplane, which is currently performing complex commercial agricultural operations in several countries. The same design is being modified for 200-mile radius cargo operations.
“Pyka’s strategy is to rapidly move towards profitability in order to support our long-term growth potential,” Pyka Chief Commercial Officer Volker Fabian says. “We achieved our first commercial approval within two and half years of operation. Now we have multiple active customers around the world with another dozen or so launch customers in the pipeline across both the ag and cargo segments. This funding allows us to actively pursue that work and further accelerate business growth.”
The Pelican crop spraying aircraft is fully autonomous with LIDAR enabled collision and terrain avoidance systems. Powered by three electric motors and redundant batteries, the Pelican can take off in as little as 450 feet and spray up to 130 acres an hour at a fifth of the operating costs of piloted aircraft.
“We are excited to partner with Pyka to change the game for sustainable air transport,” said Mark Gudiksen, Managing Partner, Piva Capital. “As a leader in fully autonomous electric aviation with airplanes in commercial operation, we’ve been impressed with Pyka’s pace of innovation and unique approach to the agriculture and logistics marketplaces. We look forward to helping the company rapidly scale to other industries and continue its pioneering vision to make autonomous aircraft more accessible, affordable, and better for the environment.”
“This investment in Pyka aligns perfectly with our mission to address climate change,” says Tim Woodward, Managing Partner at Prelude Ventures. “Pyka is providing major agriculture and logistics industries with real solutions for the transition to a low-carbon economy.”
About Pyka
Pyka is defining the future of fast, environmentally friendly, and accessible electric aviation with commercially certified electric autonomous airplanes. Pyka’s proprietary technology includes autonomous flight control software, flight computers, high energy density batteries, high power density motor controllers, and a carbon fiber composite airframe.
To learn more, please visit www.flypyka.com.
For Media inquiries, please contact media@flypyka.com
Pyka Inc.
1960 Mandela Parkway, Oakland, CA 94607, USA
Email: pyka@flypyka.com
