Thomas Ashman
and Melanie Stricklan, co-founders of Slingshot Aerospace and David Godwin, CEO, courtesy photo

Austin-based Slingshot Aerospace announced Tuesday that it has received $3.25 million in seed stage funding, led by ATX Seed Ventures.

Slingshot Aerospace is using artificial intelligence to provide detailed reports about the earth to industries such as Defense, insurance, and energy.

Other investors in the seed round included Okapi Venture Capital and Sway Ventures along with Stage and NoName Ventures. The company plans to use the money to “build upon its early success by unlocking insights gained from satellite images, drones, and aircraft,” according to a news release.

Slingshot Aerospace is doing deep data analysis from a variety of sources to provide a clear picture of different parts of the country and world.

“The amount of data gathered by satellites, aircraft, and drones is accelerating exponentially. Turning that into profound, useful insights via Artificial Intelligence is one of the largest market opportunities of the decade” Christopher Shonk, founder of ATX Seed Ventures, said in a news release. “We are thrilled to work with this experienced management team and, having spoken to current and potential customers, we maintain a strong outlook for Slingshot Aerospace to lead the market.”

Slingshot Aerospace worked with BAE Systems and Team Rubicon during hurricanes Harvey and Irma, to analyze flooding severity and provide up to date information on the best evacuation routes in the affected areas. That insight allowed rescuers to get help to people in need faster.

“Slingshot’s capabilities are not limited to specific industries but are built to enable our team to innovate, build and deploy ready-to-use solutions rapidly. This gives Slingshot an unfair advantage in solving high-value problems for our customers in a more timely and accurate way than our competition,” David Godwin, CEO of Slingshot, said in a news release. “This round will enable Slingshot to press our advantage to be the first place Defense and commercial senior decision makers look for assessing risk, monitoring change or evaluating opportunity around assets worldwide.”
Slingshot Aerospace has headquarters in Austin, Texas and also has a significant presence in its El Segundo offices in Los Angeles, California.

U.S. Air Force veterans Melanie Stricklan and Thomas Ashman and Serial Entrepreneur David Godwin founded Slingshot Aerospace in June of 2017. The company was part of the Techstars LA inaugural class.