Statkraft Ventures invests in SkySpecs
Robotics company SkySpecs Inc. closed an $ 8 Million Series B financing round led by Statkraft Ventures together with UL Ventures, Capital Midwest and existing investors.
10th of January 2018 - SkySpecs is the fastest growing inspection company in the wind sector, making rotor blade inspections more precise and safe while keeping operations at a lower cost compared to traditional methods.
“We are excited to have Statkraft Ventures on board; as a very knowledgeable lead investor in the renewable energy markets they can support us to scale our international operations and help us enabling our customers to decide what, when and at which price repairs or maintenance is to be done” says Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs.
SkySpecs emerged the first fully-automated wind turbine blade inspection solution on the market, completing more than 3,600 turbine inspections in the US and Europe in 2017.Fifteen-minute inspections that require only the push of a button - and no additional human oversight - make a previously hardly repeatable, laborious and time-consuming task simple, and keeps active maintenance and waiting time to a minimum. “We consider standardization and automation of O&M related tasks the next big challenge in cost competition after hardware costs for renewable energy assets have dropped significantly over the last years. SkySpecs´ technological expertise combined with their scalable operations is the key to grow the business worldwide” says Alexander Kueppers, Investment Manager at Statkraft Ventures.
SkySpecs combines deep expertise in robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine-based analytics to advance renewable infrastructure inspection. The company’s guiding mission is to play a critical role in the smart grid evolution by helping to make renewable energy more accessible and attainable. SkySpecs’ automated technology currently solves one of the top challenges that industrial asset owners and service providers face: making timely, informed business decisions that ultimately affect the bottom line. This investment represents an opportunity to capitalize on that momentum.