Commercial drones are shaping and changing many industries around the world and the commercial drone space is rapidly growing, but there are still many challenges to overcome and gaps in the ecosystem to enable drones to be used at scale for jobs that were previously too dangerous, costly or difficult, and applications yet to be imagined. The Commercial Drone Fund was established to support businesses that are developing technologies and services that are critical to scaling the use of commercial drones across a variety of applications.

According to AgFunder's 2016 AgTech Investing Report (supported by The Robot Report's own research), 2016 drone funding fell 64% from 2015 levels. Also, the type of companies getting funded were sensor, payload and analytics-based add-ons or service-providing companies rather than drone makers. In 2015, according to AgFunder, the largest drone deal was DJI's $75 million followed by 3D Robotics' $64 million. In 2016, the largest deal was 3D Robotics' $27 million and the majority of drone tech deals closed during the year were seed stage (15 out of 25), whereas there was an even split between late and seed stage deals in 2015. The Robot Report's year-end article: 2016 best year ever for funding robotics startup companies included 27 UAS deals. The largest was for $43.8 million to a meds drone delivery service, Zipline International.

Echoing a company belief in autonomous systems, clever algorithms, and replacing fallible humans with smart machines, Google's venture capital arm announced yesterday that it is investing $10.7 million in a company that makes drone brains. The company, Airware, builds autopilots for unmanned aerial systems. Because space and weight are at a premium on drones, especially small ones, Airware's systems can get pretty tiny--one model weighs 32 grams, or about the same as a pocketful of coins. Airware made news in January (under their previous name of Unmanned Innovations, Inc.) when a Kenyan wildlife conservation group purchased one of its drones to fly over a nature preserve and watch for poachers. Google itself has a history with robot vehicles.