Healthcare a big market opportunity for drone startups, says Skye Air Mobility

Drone startup Skye Air Mobility is eyeing $15 million in a Series A funding round, after changing its flight route towards the drone-as-a-service model.

The company’s CEO, Ankit Kumar, on the sidelines of Gitex Global in Dubai, told CNBC-TV18 that the healthcare sector is going to be the first adopter of the commercial drone technology.

“Time is more sensitive (in healthcare) and the kind of criticality that is involved with people moving around and saving lives is very much realised in the healthcare sector. So ... healthcare is going to be a bigger market opportunity for drone delivery companies as such,” Kumar said.

He said they expect to close the year with revenues of around $1 million.

Kumar said, “We have 22 clients and are adding more — we expect to have 40 clients by end of this year. We are also opening our Series A funding for about $15 million. So we are in discussions with lot of investors to look into what we can build and how we can build. We are growing domestically a lot and we want to keep that growth at the same par but we also want to grow to other markets. So this fundraise will be utilised towards those things as well.”