Funding will accelerate manufacturing, customer deliveries and deployment of SiFly’s record-setting Q12 aircraft
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SiFly Aviation today announced a $20 million Series A financing led by Shield Capital with participation from Qudit, BBK Capital, and Alumni Ventures, among others. The funding will accelerate production and customer deliveries of SiFly’s Q12 long-endurance electric aircraft and advance development and field validation of its DronePort multi-drone infrastructure system.
SiFly has validated the Q12’s performance through thousands of flights and hundreds of hours of testing. The aircraft flies 4x longer and up to 10x farther than leading enterprise drones while carrying payloads of up to 10 pounds. This performance includes a flight of 3 hours, 11 minutes and 54 seconds, earning SiFly the Guinness World Record for the longest flight by an electric multirotor aircraft in its weight class.
“Most multirotor drones were designed for short flights close to the operator. We built the Q12 to combine the agility, precision hover and vertical takeoff and landing of a multirotor drone with the efficiency, range and speed of a fixed wing aircraft,” said Brian Hinman, Founder & CEO of SiFly. “This financing allows us to scale production, fulfill our growing backlog and support successful customer deployments.”
SiFly is targeting markets where greater endurance can directly improve operating performance and economics. For public safety agencies, the Q12 expands response coverage and time on station and, when paired with DronePort, supports more capable Drone-as-First-Responder operations. Utilities and infrastructure operators can inspect more miles per flight, while agricultural customers can map and analyze more acres with fewer aircraft, launches and operators.
“For drone operators, greater endurance translates into faster response, broader coverage and lower cost per mission,” said Ray Rothrock of Shield Capital. “SiFly is positioned to redefine how drones are used across mission-critical applications—including public safety, critical infrastructure and agriculture—where value is directly tied to the productive work each aircraft can deliver.”
The financing comes as geopolitical competition and supply-chain concerns are increasing demand for high-performance drones designed and manufactured in the United States. Commercial operators and public agencies are seeking trusted domestic alternatives that deliver greater capability at economics that support widespread deployment. SiFly is building that alternative by combining record-setting aircraft performance, scalable U.S. manufacturing and a price point designed for real-world operations.
SiFly will use the funding to scale Q12 production, expand its manufacturing and supply-chain capabilities, and support initial customer deliveries and deployments. The investment will also advance DronePort development and field validation while expanding the go-to-market, customer-operations and regulatory capabilities required for broader adoption.
About SiFly
SiFly, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, delivers helicopter-like performance at drone economics through long-endurance autonomous aerial systems. Its cloud-connected, U.S.-made platforms enable persistent coverage for public safety, critical infrastructure inspection and enterprise operations—unlocking faster response, broader coverage and lower operating costs.
Discover more and request a demonstration at www.sifly.co.
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SOURCE SiFly
