The Commercial Drone Fund on Tuesday announced it has invested in Raptor Maps. The VC fund is an offshoot of Airware, a commercial drone technology company that invests in promising startups leveraging the capabilities of commercial drones across industry sectors. The company, while headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., has been notably active in Maine. It received a $25,000 seed grant from the Maine Technology Institute in February 2016 to launch a pilot program in Aroostook County that saw its drone technology help potato farmers more easily monitor things like fertilization results and pest management. The comprehensive data collected by the sky-bound drones was crunched and provided to the farmers in such a way to allow them to make informed decisions about their farming operations and ultimately improve their crop yields. With the use of drones, tractor-mounted sensors and software, Raptor Maps has created a system for farmers that allows them to precisely map, analyze, and measure m the quality of crops at critical times during the growing season, according to the company. Vadhavkar and his cofounder Edward Obropta launched the company in 2015 while students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That year, Raptor Maps won the MIT Entrepreneurship Competition and $100,000. It recently graduated from the Y Combinator Summer 2016 batch, during which time it was administering pilot projects in several states, including Maine. The company’s progress has been enough to catch the eye of Airware and its VC fund. More than just potato farmers will keep Raptor Maps involved in Maine. Vadhavkar told Maine Startups Insider that he also believes the company’s drone technology could offer an effective management tool to the forestry industry.
