eVTOL Drone Maker Guardian Agriculture Begins Offering Drone Services

Guardian Agriculture is a drone startup that makes eVTOL drones for farming—specifically for crop spraying. And now it’s dipping its toes into the services side of the drone industry.

(eVTOL = electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing.)

Credit: Guardian Agriculture

The company has built a name for itself in the fairly narrow but lucrative niche of making drones just for the needs of agriculture.

But now, in a move the company says no other eVTOL manufacturer has made, it will be moving beyond making drones, and into operating them.

What Drone Services Will Guardian Agriculture Offer?

Guardian Agriculture’s first client for drone services is in the Salinas Valley region of California. Four of the company’s drones will be used to spray crops in the area.

While several companies are developing eVTOL technologies, we are now the only one that has both secured FAA approval to operate commercially nationwide, and that’s actually started flying missions on behalf of paying customers.

– Adam Bercu, Founder and CEO of Guardian Agriculture

It’s not uncommon for drone manufacturers that make high-end drones for a niche purpose to be asked to also operate them.

When I worked at Flyability, the company known for making caged drones for inspections in confined spaces, current customers and potential customers would often ask for inspection deliverables. Sometimes, these requests were made as part of a potential sale—i.e., show us what kinds of data your drone could collect for us. And sometimes, these requests were from end users who just wanted the data itself.

Credit: Guardian Agriculture

In both cases, the company was essentially being asked to offer an inspection service. And it does behoove drone manufacturers to do a little bit of work to demonstrate the value of their technology, especially when they’re selling expensive platforms. (The Elios 3 starts at around $50,000.)

But to cross over and actually begin offering drone services is a complicated proposition. Charging for drones and charging to fly them are different business models, and Guardian Agriculture is right to tout the fact that they’re doing both.

And it’s worth noting that offering services wasn’t an afterthought for Guardian. It sought FAA approval this year to fly its eVTOLs commercially in the U.S.—and got it back in March—demonstrating that the company has had a plan both to make highly niche platforms and to fly them for some time.

About Guardian Agriculture’s Drones

As a startup, going after two different markets at the same time is a gamble. If you expend too many resources before you start bringing in revenue, you could run out of operational funds before you really get up and running.

But in Guardian’s case, the gamble seems to be paying off. According to a recent statement, the company already has over $100 million in customer orders.

So what’s unique about Guardian Agriculture’s agricultural drones?

The company’s focus is on developing “automated eVTOL systems for sustainable farming on a commercial scale.”

It first started prototyping platforms back in 2017. After developing two different prototypes, the Alpha—which was massive, with a 50-gallon payload and 7-foot props—and the Eva, it landed on a production model that it could take to market, and began selling it in 2021.

That drone is called the SC1 and it’s even bigger than the Alpha, with a carrying capacity of up to 200 pounds.

Specs for the Guardian SC1

Here are the SC1’s main specs:

• Payload. 200 pound payload capacity (20 GAL / 76 L).
• Max coverage. 60 acres per hour.
• Prep time. 1 minute combined tank fill and supercharge time.

And here are some of the main features of the SC1:

• Made in America
• Fully programmable, repeatable coverage
• Simple to operate
• No manual control required
• RTK / GNSS remote control accuracy
• Intelligent auto-protect
• Return-to-Home functionality

The Alpha | Credit: Guardian Agriculture

The SC1 sells for $119K, and you can see that price tag right on the Guardian Agriculture website.

That fact alone says something about the company’s confidence in its market and the value its potential customers will see in their technology. Many companies that sell commercial drones in the $20K+ price range often don’t list their pricing, instead making you request it and then talk to a sales rep before they’ll reveal how much their drones cost.

And Guardian’s confidence seems to be well-founded. Not only does it have that $100 million in orders we mentioned above, but the company has also received $20 million in Series A funding and has leaders from prominent companies like Apple, Tesla, and Uber in its roster.

Adding to this momentum, just this week the company was named the Emerging Robotics Company of the Year by the New England Venture Capital Association. Given all of this early success, we’re sure to hear a lot more about Guardian Agriculture’s eVTOLs and its services before too long.