ROBBRIEF
California's SiFly raised a $20M Series A led by Shield Capital to scale US production of a long endurance electric drone that just set a Guinness endurance record.
A Q12 electric multirotor built by California-based SiFly Aviation stayed airborne for 3 hours, 11 minutes, and 54 seconds, a Guinness World Record for the longest flight by an electric multirotor in its weight class, set under the company's own test conditions (DroneDJ).
SiFly closed a $20 million Series A the same week. Shield Capital led the round, with Qudit, BBK Capital, Alumni Ventures, and other investors participating. The capital is earmarked for US manufacturing expansion, supply-chain hardening, backlog fulfillment, and initial deliveries, with the company targeting public safety, utilities and infrastructure inspection, and agriculture.
SiFly pitches the Q12 as a bridge between multirotor and fixed-wing aircraft: hover and VTOL agility on one side, fixed-wing range and efficiency on the other. The company claims it flies four to five times longer and up to 10 times farther than leading enterprise multirotors, while carrying up to 10 pounds. Both the performance multipliers and the endurance record are company-attested; independent deployment data is not in the trade-press recap.
Founder and CEO Brian Hinman says thousands of test flights and hundreds of flight hours have validated the platform. The Series A also funds continued development of the DronePort autonomous infrastructure system, which SiFly describes as the scaffolding for fleets of autonomous drones and future operations.
For operators, the pitch is fewer launches, fewer battery swaps, and fewer aircraft per mission. Whether that holds up outside company test conditions is the next test the company has to pass.