July 18 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian cargo drone manufacturer Dronamics on Tuesday launched a pre-Series A funding round capped at 2 million euro ($2.25 million) exclusively through SeedBlink, the Romania-based crowdfunding platform said.
Dronamics is offering a minimum individual investment of 2,500 euro, just several months ahead of the planned launch of its Series A funding round which will raise money to commercialise their Black Swan drone, SeedBlink said in a press release. The fund-raiser will be open on the platform until July 31.
Dronamics is already a licensed flight operator in Europe. It announced last week that it has become the first cargo drone airline to have officially secured its own International Air Transport Association code, OY, as well as International Civil Aviation Organization codes, putting it on the same footing as other international airlines.
The pre-seed round comes on the heels of the successful first full-scale flight in May of the Black Swan which took the cargo drone to an altitude of 2,000 feet for 10 minutes.
"When compared to conventional cargo transport methods, the Black Swan stands out by reducing emissions by up to 60%, saving time by up to 80%, and cutting costs by up to 50%," Dronamics co-founder and CEO Svilen Rangelov said. The drone can fly at a distance of up to 2,500 km carrying cargo weighing up to 350 kg.
In February, the cargo drone maker secured pre-seed funding of $40 million (35.7 million euro) from venture capital funds and angel investors from 12 countries, with participation from the state-owned defence and security fund of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Last year, the company also received a 2.5 million euro EU grant.
This is the second time that Dronamics has used SeedBlink to raise funds, after an oversubscribed fund-raiser through the platform in December of 2021 attracted 217 investors and fetched 900,000 euro of fresh capital.
($ = 0.8875 euro)