Volansi, a California-based provider of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) middle-mile drone delivery services, has closed $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Icon Ventures.

Other participants in the funding round include existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and YCombinator alongside new investors Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Harpoon Ventures.

Joe Horowitz of Icon Ventures said: “The drone market is very crowded with all sorts of players, but after getting to know Hannan and his team and doing an extensive amount of due diligence, especially with Volansi’s key customers and distribution partners, it became abundantly clear that the company is well-positioned to rapidly build a huge business.

“We are particularly excited about Volansi’s unique ability to address the medical community with urgent vaccine delivery, particularly in looking ahead to a post-COVID world.”

Volansi caters to enterprise customers and the US Department of Defense with its automated point-to-point drone delivery services for time-critical parts and urgent medical supplies.

The drone delivery services provider said that the new funding will enable it to consolidate on current momentum for the expansion of its team, launch of new projects, and to scale current initiatives in emerging markets and also in the US.

Hannan Parvizian – CEO and Co-Founder of Volansi said: “The combination of our best in class cargo drones and unique software platform set us apart from others in the industry.

“Closing our Series B with such high-quality investors, especially during these challenging times, is further testament to the venture capital community’s confidence in our business and will allow us to keep pushing the envelope of mobility and robotics.”

After securing $25 million of prior capital from Lightspeed and other investors, Volansi developed and launched autonomous drones such as VOLY M20, and VOLY C10, and others.

  Hannan Parvizian, Harpoon Ventures, Icon Ventures, Joe Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Volansi, YCombinator