PRESS RELEASE
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. 鈥� Skyfire Consulting (Skyfire) (), the most trusted and experienced public safety and Department of Defense (DOD) drone program implementation specialist, today announced it has been acquired by Echelon AI, the leading autonomous and swarming Artificial Intelligence company for Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS), backed by Andrew Ng鈥檚 AI Fund. The combined entity, SkyfireAI (), will be a pioneer in integrating bleeding-edge Artificial Intelligence with UAV/UAS technologies to revolutionize critical missions for public safety and global defense applications. The combined company wields deep technical expertise in (g)AI/ML, swarming, applied physics, and uncrewed flight systems. A highly accomplished team with experience across multiple successful start-ups and ranging from growth and venture to Fortune 50 leadership, Skyfire鈥檚 founders and core team also have backgrounds in federal (FBI), state and local law enforcement; military service (Navy/Air Force/Army); the CIA; DARPA; firefighting and EMS-first response; and military and civil aviation.
AI for the Future of Drone Technology
SkyfireAI emerges as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) Artificial Intelligence powerhouse, perfectly positioned to capitalize on the rapid increase in Drone First Responder (DFR) programs and the rise of defense applications for drones around the world. The company offers comprehensive turnkey drone solutions for law enforcement, fire and EMS, as well as defense applications such as intelligent border and perimeter protection, and enhanced multi-dimensional situation awareness.
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 be more excited to join forces with our partner Skyfire. We鈥檝e worked together closely almost since formation; with this acquisition, we have now formally combined the world鈥檚 best minds in UAS/UAV AI, together with the most experienced team in public safety and DOD drone implementation,鈥� said Don Mathis, Echelon Co-founder and CEO.
鈥淪kyfireAI is poised to shape the future of drone technology with advanced AI solutions that will unlock the power of autonomous single and multi-ship drone formations.鈥�
Matt Sloane, Skyfire鈥檚 Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of the combined company, added: 鈥淲e鈥檙e ideally positioned to help bring the public safety drone flight into the AI age, leveraging autonomy and swarming capabilities to help protect communities and to save lives.鈥� The legacy Skyfire team joins the engineers, AI and data scientists of Echelon to create the new SkyfireAI.
Autonomy for Dynamic Mission Success
鈥淎s drone hardware becomes increasingly commoditized, real differentiation lies in the AI mission control software and its associated technology stack,鈥� said Eric Malawer, Echelon Co-founder and COO. SkyfireAI leverages sophisticated artificial intelligence including a stacked agent architecture, generative AI and AI-on-the-edge to enable true drone autonomy operations. This allows drones to adapt dynamically in real-time to evolving environments, hardware states and mission objectives, maximizing effectiveness, efficiency and safety. The company鈥檚 proprietary mission control platform offers a fully integrated solution for the world鈥檚 most demanding public safety and defense missions, and it can operate across multiple drone hardware configurations and manufacturers.
鈥淎t its core Skyfire is an AI company,鈥� added Brian Davidson, Co-founder and CTO. 鈥淥ur platform is purpose-built to help our clients cost-effectively meet their needs, to be seamlessly customizable to those needs, and to support them as the technology evolves and the mission-set becomes increasingly more complex.鈥�
Drones as a Service
Skyfire already has a well-established track record of serving DoD and Public Safety agencies to establish and manage drone systems and operations. 鈥淗istorically this support included everything from flying the drones to offering best-in-class regulatory support, training, and hardware integration,鈥� said Sloane. 鈥淣ow, we build on that capability by integrating a truly fantastic AI software platform into our client鈥檚 operations, ensuring that they remain at the very cutting edge of capability while enabling superior results ranging from improved response time to enhanced situation awareness.鈥�
About SkyfireAI
SkyfireAI () is a next-gen autonomous and swarming AI SaaS platform for drone systems in multiple domains. We enable highly effective, precise and efficient drone mission control operations for law enforcement, military-defense, fire, search-and-rescue / first response and critical infrastructure. SkyfireAI鈥檚 solutions provide effective tools for ISR and on demand high-dimensional situational awareness. Offering a turnkey C2AI platform, the company leverages AI technology to manage end-to-end drone operations, ensuring mission success in dynamic environments. SkyfireAI鈥檚 solution includes a comprehensive suite of services including drone implementation, regulatory support, training, and advanced AI integration.