Flock Safety Acquires Aerodome to Bring Drone-as-a-First-Responder to American Cities

Flock Safety has acquired Aerodome, a 2048 Ventures portfolio company, in what has become one of the largest acquisitions in public safety to date. This is an amazing outcome for 2048 Ventures Fund II — the fund hasn’t even finishing deploying capital!

The story of our investment in Aerodome blends serendipity with thesis-driven, high conviction investing approach that we practice at 2048 ventures.

Act I: Serendipity

I first met Rahul Sidhu back in 2015 completely by accident.

I was doing office hours at General Assembly in LA, scouting for founders for my Techstars NYC 2015 program.

I was done meeting everyone I was scheduled to meet when the General Assembly program manager said, “You should also meet this other guy—a former cop.” I wasn’t sure why I needed to meet a cop, but I decided to give it 20 minutes.

That was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my venture career to date.

I instantly knew I had to invest in Rahul Sidhu. Charismatic, visionary, articulate, technical, nerdy, detail-oriented, and an all-around force of nature. And he was also hanging around General Assembly, learning how to code.

Rahul set out to build software to help police effectively communicate with their local communities. I had no idea about any of this, but I knew that Rahul was special.

I went back to NYC, did some research on the space, and had a few calls with Rahul. I told him he needed a technical co-founder. Then, in a stunning turn of events, Rahul recruited Kenaniah Cerny, his General Assembly programming instructor, to be his co-founder and CTO.

We invested in Rahul as the very first check and watched him build and grind on SPIDR Tech for the next 6 years. Through many near-death experiences, ups and downs, Rahul steered the ship and ultimately landed a good outcome for himself, early investors, and Techstars. It was a good outcome, but it wasn’t a home run, and I knew he’d be back for his second act.

Act II: The Thesis

Twenty months ago, we were forming a thesis at 2048 Ventures around additional opportunities in drones and public safety. In Fund I, we invested in AirspaceLink, the key piece of infrastructure for flying drones beyond the visual line of sight.

Through our work with AirspaceLink, we realized that police were starting to deploy drones and that Drone-as-a-First-Responder was beginning to take off.

As we formed the thesis, I decided to text Rahul to check up on what he was up to. I told him we had the perfect idea for his next adventure.

Rahul just laughed and said he was already working on a bigger version of the idea and had just started a few weeks ago.

I was stunned. This was fate.

I told Rahul he had to let us invest.

It took a few weeks of convincing him not to bootstrap, and that 2048 Ventures was the best partner. We ended up writing our biggest check ever out of the fund and led a $6M seed round. Our friend David Ulevitch from a16z ended up writing the second largest check.

Aerodome had the perfect storm of:

• a truly exceptional founder we knew from before
• working on a space and idea we had a strong thesis on
• a clear near-term inevitability.

When you have the intersection of all three, it’s a no-brainer.

Aerodome launched with the speed of light. Rahul executed so quickly and precisely it was unbelievable.

From building the absolute best tech on the market to assembling an A+ team, landing huge early customers, and everything else, it all unfolded at an impossible speed.

Nine months later, Rahul closed an oversubscribed, massive Series A led by our friend Saar Gur at CRV. From that point onward, Aerodome flew even faster.

We had a jaw-dropping front-row seat to how this technology worked and the impact it had.

Picture this: a major city with drones scattered on rooftops forming a swarm. A 911 call comes in, and the nearby drone takes off, arriving at the location within minutes. The drone streams high-definition video straight to police phones, enabling them to save money on expensive helicopters, reduce wasted trips, protect officers, and save lives.

The drone can help track “the bad guy” right to their hiding place. It can help determine that there’s no need to dispatch police. It creates a record for the future. It truly unlocks a whole new world and perspective on policing aided by smart technology.

Act III: The Impact

When Rahul decided to team up with Garrett and the team at Flock Safety, it was bittersweet. So much had already been accomplished, but the journey was still in its early days.

The decision was difficult, but the outcome — and, most importantly, the impact — is truly incredible.

With Flock’s massive distribution and Aerodome’s incredible technology, together we are accelerating this future inevitability: drones, robots, AI, and technology applied as a force multiplier for public safety.

This saves budgets, time, and, most importantly, lives. This is a true game changer and an incredible partnership that makes so much sense.

So this is the truth. The actual story.

The story of 2048 Ventures investment in Aerodome starts with the serendipity, leans on a thesis-driven approach and prepared mind, and lands on a massive societal impact.

At 2048 Ventures, we are humbled and privileged to be part of Rahul and Aerodome’s story.

We also can’t wait to share more stories of incredible technologies and the near-term inevitabilities of the founders and dreamers we’re working with.

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