Autonomy unlocks the next century of growth in aviation

(a ten trillion dollar market) by dramatically improving safety, efficiency and scale.

Iris AI software provides situational awareness critical to unlocking autonomous business cases and >$100B TAM by 2030.

1. Enterprise

2. Drone
delivery

3. Air mobility

Iris combines three
building blocks

to provide ‘better-than-human’ situational 
awareness for autonomous systems

Iris holds a key that
unlocks the sky

The company has proven performance
within the existing regulatory landscape

Iris has already enabled customers’ commercial operations through:

• 23 waivers to date
• The first on-board DAA approvals, &
  The first sole-mitigation, on-board DAA approval
  First-ever approvals for use of a visual system to provide "see-and-avoid" capability for drones. Iris has received approvals for both the on-board (CASIA X) and the ground-based (CASIA G) solution—the only of their kind in the world.
• 12-Mile BVLOS approval
  Invited to FAA aviation rule-making committee (ARC) for beyond visual line of sight flight (BVLOS).  Authored several recommendations that were included in final report to FAA. Will form basis for future rule-making.

Since its founding in 2016, Iris has built a solid customer and technology base

Consistent sales growth:

• 2x growth in orders each year for last 3 years.
• 3x growth in revenue each year for last 3 years.
  
  

Backed by the best:

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With demand increasing rapidly,
Iris needs to expand capacity
to execute and capture additional business.

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Recurring software/data licenses, hardware sales, and consulting services

Iris primarily generates revenue from recurring software/data licenses. They update software and machine learning models 3 times per year, and require the system be updated on a regular basis to maintain a valid warranty.

Secondary revenue comes from hardware sales as well as consulting services for regulatory support, engineering and integration support, and training.

Iris is poised for growth

Tech - done. Approvals - done. Raising $20M to convert demand to revenue and accelerate growth... 

• Fulfill Growing Demand - Capture more business. Add Capacity in Sales and Operations
• Scale Production - The ability to supply increasing demand converts orders to revenue faster
• Expand Distribution - Create capacity to fulfill and support the growing installed base
• Embed in Future Aircraft - Engage growth targets pre-certification
• Pursue international expansion - add approved resellers//distributors to network 

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Iris' grab-and-grow strategy
Investment enables accelerated ARR growth—fulfilling demand

Growth projections as compared to FAA forecasts of commercial registered drones. %’s are Iris’ share of that base. Air Taxi, General Aviation, Helicopters, and global expansion create additional opportunities for growth. 

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Exit strategy

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Iris expects to exit via strategic acquisition by an industry partner within the next 5 years. Considering their focus on AI on edge devices, they expect multiples that are comparable with MobileEye, AEye, Standard COgnition, Shield AI—roughly 50x ARR.

Comparable values of companies selling AI analytics on COTS sensors:

Backed by top-tier VCs

With $28M+ raised to date

Lead and other co-investors this round:

• Bessemer Venture Partners (lead)
• OCA Ventures
• Bee Partners
• Verizon Ventures
• Sony Innovation Fund
• Ericsson (new, follower)

Notable investors in previous rounds:

• Bessemer Venture Partners
• Verizon Ventures
• Sony Innovation Fund
• OCA Ventures
• Bee Partners
• Y Combinator
• GGV Ventures
• Numerous other smaller funds and individuals

Alexander Harmsen
Founder, current non-executive chairman of the board

Alexander’s background provides a diverse set of experiences working with NASA JPL, MDA, Airbus, and smaller drone tech startups. He earned his private pilot license at 17 and was elected to the board of Unmanned Systems Canada in 2015. He has published papers in computer vision, given multiple technical presentations internationally and worked on computer vision 3D reconstruction and navigation algorithms for NASA’s Mars Helicopter project at the Jet Propulsion Lab. Recently, he’s been selected for both Forbes’ and Inc’s 30 Under 30 lists, and has been invited to speak at dozens of conferences and events internationally.

James Howard
Founder, board member, CTO

James is a mechatronics engineer, roboticist and entrepreneur. He is recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, and draws on a diverse background across the unmanned systems industry, and previous ventures. James worked at Boeing and Insitu Pacific on computer vision research for drones such as the Scaneagle. At Spire Global, he helped build and launch their first four commercial satellites, seeing first hand the insides of a successful, highly technical aerospace startup. Additionally, in his first year of university he co-founded AniRevo Events as Director of Sales and has helped it grow successfully to a 14,000+ attendee annual event that is expanding globally.

Jon Damush
Board member and CEO

Jon brings over 30 years of extensive aviation technology experience and executive leadership, building upon his technical background in engineering, software development and systems integration. Most recently he led new business ventures at Boeing NeXT. Before that he was Chief Growth Officer at Insitu, Inc., a Boeing subsidiary, developing novel aircraft and UAS innovation including detect-and-avoid. He was also a Boeing executive liaison and board observer to SkyGrid, LLC, a joint venture between Boeing and SparkCognition.

Jon R. Damush 
Chief Executive Officer 
jon.damush@irisonboard.com

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