Japan’s drone manufacturing company Terra Drone has announced that it has closed $70 million (8 billion JPY) Series B funding to accelerate their expansion globally. The round was led by Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Corporation. 

The latest round comes approximately a year after the Tokyo-based company secured $14.4 million Series A in February 2021, raising the total funding capital to $83 million till date. 

Terra Drone CEO and founder Toru Tokushige, who also serves as the CEO of Terra Motors, said, “Our airspace is going to get more crowded than ever, but most companies today are concentrating only on hardware development. There’s an urgent need for a global air traffic management solution to enable safe and efficient drone and urban air mobility (UAM) operations, and TerraDrone aims to be the leading player building the digital infrastructure in the sky.” 

Other investors who took part in the round include SBI Investment, Tokyu Land Corporation, Kushu Electric Power, Seika Corporation, JOIN (Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport & Urban Development). Existing investor Venture Lab Investment also joined in the round. 

According to the company, the funding will be used to support autonomous beyond visual line of sight technology for drone and air taxi operations through its uncrewed aircraft system traffic management solutions and strengthen the development of Terra’s UAM services. Also, the funds would be set up for hiring new talent across US, Europe and Southeast Asia.

In 2018, Terra Drones acquired a Netherlands-based drone company, Terra Inspectioneering, in 2018 and invested in Belgium’s drone company Unifly in 2016.