Reliable Robotics Raises $115M, Valuation Tops $1B, as It Pursues FAA Certification of Autonomous Flight System
Why It MattersCapital continues to flow toward retrofit autonomy for existing airframes, but certification timelines of 18 months to over three years show commercial deployment remains a multi-year regulatory process.
Reliable Robotics, a Mountain View, California-based startup developing autonomous flight technology that can be installed on existing aircraft, has raised $115 million, extending its Series D round. The financing comprises $90 million in equity led by Nimble Partners and $25 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank. The Series D now totals $275 million, pushing the company's valuation beyond $1 billion, and Reliable Robotics has raised $380 million to date.
Co-founder and CEO Robert Rose, a former director of flight software at SpaceX who also worked at Tesla and Google, said the company continues to deliver evidence to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is moving closer to certification. Co-founder and CTO Juerg Frefel also spent nearly a decade at SpaceX as an engineer. Nimble Partners founder John Burbank said the effort is much bigger than building a single plane, noting that Reliable is building a system that can be adopted by any airframe.
The company is pursuing FAA certification on four fronts. The first is continuous autopilot engagement, which handles engine startup, taxiing, takeoff and landing while the pilot remains aboard and interacts through a touchscreen; Rose expects certification in 18 to 24 months. The second, which would move the pilot from the cockpit to a ground-control station, is at least three years away, according to Rose.
The third is a collision-avoidance radar that Reliable developed in-house after failing to attract legacy suppliers to the project. It is a solid-state design with no moving parts that, according to Rose, scans at longer range and higher resolution, is easier to maintain and costs less, and it also works on the ground to help prevent collisions with other aircraft or infrastructure. Rose expects certification by the end of 2027.
The fourth is certification of Reliable Airlines, which would be the first airline certified to use the autonomous technology. Based in Albuquerque, it flies cargo six days a week using six Cessna Caravans. The FAA certifies equipment separately from airline operations, which fall under a different set of regulations.
