Drone logistics company Volansi has closed a $50m series B funding round. The Californian firm specialises in vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) middle-kilometre drone delivery services.

Volansi provides automated point-to-point drone delivery services for time-critical parts and urgent medical supplies for enterprise customers and the US Department of Defense. This funding will allow it to expand its team, launch new projects and scale current initiatives in both emerging markets and in the USA.

“The combination of our best in class cargo drones and unique software platform sets us apart from others in the industry,” said Hannan Parvizian, CEO and co-founder of Volansi.

The funding round was led by Icon Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Palo Alto and San Francisco and specialising in series B and C financings.

“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,” said Joe Horowitz, managing partner of Icon. “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.”

Other participants in this financing round included existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and YCombinator as well as new investors Harpoon Ventures and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund.

“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,” said Parvizian.

Volansi also announced that Horowitz and Barry Eggers, founding partner of Lightspeed, would join its board of directors.

“The Volansi team has made significant progress since Lightspeed led the company’s series A back in 2019,” said Eggers. “We’ve been impressed by the leadership and team’s ability to innovate and execute, and we are looking forward to deepening our partnership during this next phase of growth.”

With $25m of prior capital provided by Lightspeed and other investors, Volansi developed and brought to market autonomous drones, including the Voly M20 and C10. The C10, the workhorse of Volansi’s UAV fleet, carries up to 4.5kg of cargo over 80km. The aircraft has already performed operations in Africa, the Caribbean, and the USA. The M20 is a dual role aircraft with the ability simultaneously to carry up to 9kg of cargo in addition to 4.5kg of sensor payloads. It has a 560km range, a cruising speed of 120kmph, and more than eight hours of endurance for sensor operations.