Statkraft Ventures, the venture capital firm sponsored by power producer Statkraft, led an $8m series B round for US-based infrastructure inspection service SkySpecs on Tuesday.
UL Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of safety and compliance firm UL, also invested as part of the round, as did VC firm Venture Investors, VC fund Huron River Ventures and unnamed additional participants.
Founded in 2012, SkySpecs conducts quality and safety inspections at offshore wind turbines using an unmanned aerial vehicle it has developed, in order to reduce the maintenance and time required by manual inspection.
The series B proceeds will be used to enhance SkySpecs’ inspection software as it looks to expand in international markets. The company conducted 3,600 turbine inspections in the US and Europe during 2017.
SkySpecs has now disclosed approximately $12.6m in funding altogether, including $575,000 in debt financing according to a July 2017 securities filing.
Jim Adox, managing director of Venture Investors, led a $3.7m round for the company in 2015 that included Huron River Partners, the Michigan state-funded Invest Michigan and undisclosed angel investors.
Alexander Kueppers, investment manager at Statkraft Ventures, said: “We consider automation and standardisation of operation and maintenance-related tasks the next big challenge in cost competition after hardware costs for renewable energy assets have dropped significantly over the last years.”
