3D Robotics announces VC funding, expansion plans!

Last week you may have seen the news that I'm going to be leaving Wired to lead 3D Robotics full time as CEO. Now I'm delighted to announce our other exciting news: last week we closed a $5+ million funding round with two premier firms, which will allow us to accelerate the growth of 3DR and expand into new markets.

The round was led by Jon Callaghan at True Ventures and Bryce Roberts of O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. Both of them will be joining the 3DR board. These are two of the most far-seeing VCs in the Valley, and both are part of the "hardware is the new software" trend, including investments in Fitbit, Makerbot, Littlebits and Instructables. And they share our vision of the power of open source, the Maker movement and personal robotics. Chris Michel, an investor and long-time entrepreneur (and former Naval Flight Officer) will also be joining as an investor and board member.

I'll be opening an office in the SF Bay Area ("3DR North"), which will focus on sales/marketing and community development. Our San Diego headquarters will continue to be the R&D and engineering center, while our Tijuana manufacturing is expanding to handle more and more of our production. My co-founder, Jordi Munoz, will take over the role of President, overseeing operations.

With me joining as CEO and the funding round, we'll be growing the company quickly. We're now at 40 people, but will be hiring more hardware and software engineers in San Diego and sales, marketing and community management people in the Bay Area (probably in the Berkeley/Emeryville area).

The aim of this ramp-up is simple: more cool stuff and a great customer and community experience. As part of this, we'll be launching a new 3D Robotics site/store, new product sites, manuals and tech support communities and a expanded customer support team. And of course a wave of exciting new products, focused on making drones and other aerial robotics technology easier, more powerful and cheaper than ever before.

This is going to be fun ;-)

Hi Chris,

The best of luck, I wish you every success. Personally, I think this is a great idea.

Hi Marc,

UAV-DevBoard (UDB) is also alive and well. It is presently listed under the MEMBERS tab. It used to be under an OTHERPROJECTS tab, but Chris dropped that tab. I contacted him when the link disappeared, I think the reason he gave was that the contents of the tab was stale and he was not up-to-date on what was going on with other projects. He moved the UDB link to another tab, which eventually disappeared. I contacted him again, he cheerfully created a link under the MEMBERS tab.

I think Chris's intentions are good, I consider him a good friend and I continue to work with members of the Ardu team such as Jonathan and Tridge.

That said, I think that DIYDrones is becoming a Ardu-only community, if it has not already done so. That is fine with me as far as UAVDevBoard is concerned, we have our own community and website, with our own interests. UDB specific discussions are carried out there, but whenever any of our members have something of interest to the wider community, they continue to post on DIYDrones.

The bottom line is that I am optimistic about Chris's announcement, I think it is good news. From the hardware point of view, the UDB project has only one UDB specific board, an IMU/autopilot board which is sold by Sparkfun. For other accessories, such as opto-isolators, magnetometers, barometers, etc., UDB users (myself included) often buy from 3D robotics. For myself, I am glad that 3D robotics offers a complete line of gadgets that have been specifically designed with this community in mind.

Best regards,

Bill

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William Premerlani November 6, 2012 at 11:45am

Hi Chris,

The best of luck, I wish you every success. Personally, I think this is a great idea.

Hi Marc,

UAV-DevBoard (UDB) is also alive and well. It is presently listed under the MEMBERS tab. It used to be under an OTHERPROJECTS tab, but Chris dropped that tab. I contacted him when the link disappeared, I think the reason he gave was that the contents of the tab was stale and he was not up-to-date on what was going on with other projects. He moved the UDB link to another tab, which eventually disappeared. I contacted him again, he cheerfully created a link under the MEMBERS tab.

I think Chris's intentions are good, I consider him a good friend and I continue to work with members of the Ardu team such as Jonathan and Tridge.

That said, I think that DIYDrones is becoming a Ardu-only community, if it has not already done so. That is fine with me as far as UAVDevBoard is concerned, we have our own community and website, with our own interests. UDB specific discussions are carried out there, but whenever any of our members have something of interest to the wider community, they continue to post on DIYDrones.

The bottom line is that I am optimistic about Chris's announcement, I think it is good news. From the hardware point of view, the UDB project has only one UDB specific board, an IMU/autopilot board which is sold by Sparkfun. For other accessories, such as opto-isolators, magnetometers, barometers, etc., UDB users (myself included) often buy from 3D robotics. For myself, I am glad that 3D robotics offers a complete line of gadgets that have been specifically designed with this community in mind.

Best regards,

Bill
Drone Nerd November 6, 2012 at 6:29am

Great news, Chris!

Ever thought about expanding your market in Brazil?

Please, let me know if it's possible...

Thanks!
ThomasB November 6, 2012 at 4:38am

@MarcS

Thanks for the "missing other projects" hint

I wasn't aware of this up to now. Interesting.
Andrew Rabbitt November 6, 2012 at 1:01am

I have seen the end results of enough VC investments to be completely unexcited by this announcement. I'm hoping for the best here, but fearing the worst.
MarcS November 6, 2012 at 12:40am

Hmmm, what makes me wonder reading Brent´s comment is when and why the "other projects" Button disappeard from the page...The point should have been extended, from a communitys point of view.

The information was not really up to date, but to let people know there are other open source projects (I think UAV-DevBoard and Paparazzi where mentioned, could be extended...) should be important to a DIY community. Probably someone reponsible could bring information on that matter.
Scott Berfield November 5, 2012 at 10:31pm

Congrats, Chris. Hope you didn't have to give up too much equity. Looking forward to seeing what the funds allow you to do.
W. Joe Taylor November 5, 2012 at 10:04pm

Lets hope the open source hardware and software of the 3dr /diy drones community will continue, in spite of vc investment. The reason the group has been successful is because of the commitment of the open source community. 3dr, jdrones, udrones, etc grew from the logical need to offer productsthat were more flunctional out of the box, and the apm2 hardware and software made that more of a reality as well. But there are still glitches and it is still evolving. If the full time attention of Chris and additional capital will further the reliability and do as Chris says "lower prices, enhance performance", While keeping the project open source to allow continued learning, then we will all benefit. Some of us watching from the sidelines, and selectively purchasing products for our purposes, remember when a quadcopter with gpsway point navigation was a lot more difficult than it is today and way more expensive. Keep up the good work Chris, Jordi, Jani, and all the others in the developers realm. Thanks to you the Diy drones is not just a slogan but an incredible success. I will eagerly continue to support it.
Wiki Ninja

Gent Armedo November 5, 2012 at 9:02pm

Woohoo! Great going for 3DR and congrats, Chris and Jordi! It would be great working for the company in the Bay Area. I would like to inquire about job opportunities in 3DR North...
Tom in NOVA November 5, 2012 at 8:18pm

Amazing changes since 2008! Now others around the world can take part and benefit from "The American Dream" with the open source. Wish you continued success and thank you for the exciting ride!
Harry November 5, 2012 at 7:54pm

It's great to see growth and success. My available for hire light is on too.

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