Defense tech company Shield AI closes $165m round led by Snowpoint Ventures

• Of the funding round, $90m was raised in equity and $75m in debt
• Additional participants included Riot Ventures, Disruptive, and Homebrew 
• Previous investors include Andreesen Horowitz, Breyer Capital, Point72 and SVB Capital

Shield AI, a defense technology company that makes AI to operate aircraft, announced the completion of its $165 million series E funding, which was led by Snowpoint Ventures.

Also participating in the round were Disruptive, which led the previous round, Homebrow, which led Shield AI’s seed round, and Riot Ventures.

The San Diego-based company’s products include Hivemind, software that uses algorithms to enable aircraft to execute dynamic flight maneuvers.

In addition to software, Shield AI offers two hardware products: a small-unmanned aircraft system called Nova and a medium-size vertical take-off and landing UAS called V-BAT. Hivemind is integrated with Nova and will soon be integrated with V-BAT, the company said.

“Russia and China are jamming GPS and communications,” Shield AI co-founder and president Brandon Tseng said in a press release. “US and allied forces need swarms of resilient systems flown by AI pilots to operate in these denied environments. We call it low-cost, distributed strategic deterrence.”