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Overwatch raises $11M for airborne imaging with AI

Overwatch Imaging, an Oregon venture that makes airborne imaging systems for piloted aircraft and drones, has closed on an $11.15 million investment round led by Squadra Ventures and Shield Capital.

Other participants in the round include the Portland Seed Fund and two strategic investors, L3Harris and Bridger Aerospace.

Overwatch said the fresh funding will be used to accelerate the company’s growth and enhance its automation and image analytics software. The company plans to hire 15 to 20 more engineers and business development professionals this year.

Founded in 2016, the Hood River, Ore.-based startup specializes in precision imaging systems equipped with onboard AI software. The dual-use systems can be used for defense applications as well as for civilian applications including search-and-rescue, wildfire mapping, disaster response and infrastructure inspections.

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Overwatch gets a boost for AI-guided imaging

Fire perimeter imaging
Overwatch Imaging’s real-time fire perimeter mapping increases safety. (Overwatch Image)

Overwatch Imaging, an Oregon venture that specializes in airborne imaging systems, says it has won a multimillion-dollar investment from Tenax Aerospace, which focuses on aviation solutions that are specialized to suit the needs of its clients in government and the commercial sector.

The Series A funding deal, announced today, builds on an existing partnership between Overwatch and Tenax, a privately held company that’s based in Mississippi. It marks the first outside investment taken in by Overwatch, which was founded in 2016. Overwatch CEO and co-founder Greg Davis said the size of the investment amounts to millions of dollars, but he declined to be more precise.

The money will go toward expanding Overwatch’s production operations into a larger facility in Hood River, Ore., and accelerating development of the company’s AI software for autonomous imagery collection and analysis.

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EagleView aerial imagery venture expands

EagleView user
EagleView Technologies uses aerial imagery capture and data analytics to provide accurate property measurements. (EagleView via YouTube)

EagleView Technologies, a privately held aerial imagery and data analytics company headquartered in Bothell, Wash., says it intends to acquire Spookfish, an Australian company that’s in the same business.

The acquisition takes the form of an all-cash offer for Spookfish’s publicly traded shares, at a premium price of 0.08 Australian dollars (6 U.S. cents) per share.

The offer values Spookfish at about $89.7 million (121.6 million Australian dollars), according to public disclosure filings. EagleView already holds 10.49 percent of Spookfish’s shares, as the result of a 2016 investment that made EagleView the Australian company’s largest single shareholder.

“The price we are paying is for the approximately 89.51 percent of the remaining shares,” David Snider, EagleView’s vice president of marketing, explained in an email to GeekWire. That translates to $80.3 million.

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