• Flytrex, an Israeli drone delivery company, has raised USD 40 million in a Series C funding round led by BRM Group, with participation from OurCrowd, Lukasz Gadowski—founder and chairman of Delivery Hero, as well as existing investors Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV), Btov, and BackBone Ventures. The round brings the company’s total funds raised to USD 60 million.

• The company intends to use the funds to expand operations across the US, enter into new partnerships with retailers and restaurants, and further develop its drone hardware and software.

• The company is also nearing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s approval to start national-scale commercial operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) — expected in H1 2022.

• Reportedly, Flytrex has witnessed over a 10x increase in delivery order volumes since February this year and has completed “thousands of deliveries” to date.

<ul><li> Analyst QuickTake: The news comes in less than a year after Flytrex raised USD 8 million to scale operations in the US. Since then, the company has extended partnerships, including Walmart’s (May 2021), and teamed up with Brinker International (owner of restaurant brands Chili's, Maggiano's Little Italy, and It's Just Wings; October 2021) and El Pollo Loco (a chicken restaurant chain; June 2021), for more delivery trials in North Carolina and Southern California. These partnerships were facilitated by the FAA’s approval Flytrex received in May, allowing direct deliveries to customers’ homes within the visual line of sight (VLOS). Its peer startup, Zipline, was ahead of Flytrex to have started commercial deliveries in the US, earlier this week. </ul>