3D Robotics, a maker of small unmanned aircraft which it hopes to sell to businesses, said that it received $50 million in a series C funding round led by Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM).
The move comes as the Federal Aviation Administration starts to clarify rules for the commercial use of drones in the United States.
3D Robotics has roots in the San Diego area. Its engineering team is based in Otay Mesa and manufacturing is concentrated in Tijuana. The company headquarters are in Berkeley; sales and marketing are in Austin, Texas.
“We raised such a big round for two reasons,” said a notice on the 3D Robotics blog. “First, to leverage the extraordinary pace of innovation in the smartphone industry by partnering with the leader there, Qualcomm, with the goal of extending the mobile revolution to the skies.
“We also want to build on our great platform adoption and enable an entire global ecosystem of commercial drone specialists and operators, all creating products and services based on 3DR’s technology.”
The blog post called Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors “ideal” for work in flying machines.
3D Robotics produces not only physical aircraft but the software that controls them.