drone-data
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Dmitry Korolev Learned to Read the Ground by Flying Above It
A competitive paraglider turned drones from a costly coffee stunt into the eyes of a construction platform, where the real work begins after landing: helping every builder see the same site at the same time.
Anne Zink Wants Every Cell Tower to Tell the Truth
The 5x5 Technologies founder spent years helping disruptive products find a market. Then she found a stubborn problem hiding inside thousands of polished drone photographs: infrastructure owners could see their assets, but they still could not reliably act on them.
Skycatch
Skycatch is a San Francisco drone-data company that turns aerial imagery into centimeter-accurate 3D and 4D models of mines, construction sites, and energy facilities. Founded in 2013 by Christian Sanz and Christopher Bumgardner, it pairs custom DJI-built drones and on-site edge computers with a cloud photogrammetry engine and AI to give industrial operators near-real-time maps of the physical world. Backed by Google Ventures, Komatsu, Autodesk, and others, Skycatch was acquired by Caterpillar in July 2026 to strengthen its data-driven mining technology portfolio.
Aerobotics
Aerobotics is a Cape Town-founded agritech company that turns aerial and smartphone imagery into tree-level intelligence for fruit and nut growers. Using drones, satellites and machine-learning algorithms feeding its Aeroview platform, it counts trees, flags missing or sick plants, tracks pests and disease, and forecasts yields with size, color and quality measurements - helping growers across roughly 18 countries protect crop value and make data-driven decisions.