startup (Percepto), which develops technologies for autonomous drones has raised $67 million

The startup (Percepto), which develops technologies for autonomous drones, has raised $67 million in a C round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT). The round brings the company's total fundraising since its inception to more than $120 million. About 50 million dollars were raised in this round in equity and the rest in debt was provided by the credit fund Kraus Capital which was sold to Blackrock. The hiring comes after the company went through two rounds of layoffs, during which it fired 25% of its workforce.
Percepto develops autonomous drones that perform automatic monitoring of industrial sites, including power generation facilities, mines, chemical plants and refineries in order to identify safety and maintenance problems in the site's infrastructure. The drones depart independently from their positions, perform the tour along a predetermined route and return on time for reloading, without the need for a human operator on site. The drones were also developed to work at night and in challenging weather conditions such as rain and fog.
The company's system analyzes the information received from the drones together with other sensors that provide visual information and generates insights such as identifying trends, anomalies and identifying risks. Recently, the system detected within hours a leak of fig gas, which would have had no chance of being noticed without the drone technology and could have caused great damage over several months if it had gone undetected. The result: saving millions of dollars for the company, reducing the risk to employees and preventing heavy environmental damage.
The company was founded in 2014 by Dor Abuhchira (CEO), Sagi Blunder (CTO), Raviv Raz (CPO) and Ariel Avitan (CCO). It currently employs, after the rounds of layoffs, about 130 employees, of which about 100 are in the development center the company's global intelligence and the rest in the US, Europe and Australia. Percepto's systems currently operate in hundreds of infrastructure and industrial sites in the USA, Europe, Australia and Israel, and serve giant companies such as Siemens Energy, the Dead Sea Works, the Electric Company of Florida and Delek USA.