Florida Drone Inspection Startup Raises $12M for Bridge Monitoring Tech

FORT LAUDERDALE — Broward County-based SkyStructure Inc. announced Wednesday it has raised $12 million in Series A financing led by Tampa-based venture firm Blue Horizon Capital to expand its AI-powered drone inspection and structural monitoring platform for bridges and infrastructure assets.

The company’s system uses autonomous drones equipped with high-resolution multispectral cameras and LiDAR sensors to inspect bridge structures, uploading data to a cloud platform that uses machine learning algorithms to detect cracks, spalling, delamination, and other structural defects with greater accuracy than traditional visual inspection methods.

“The infrastructure inspection industry is ripe for disruption,” said SkyStructure CEO Mark Chen, a former FDOT structural engineer. “We can inspect a typical highway bridge in four hours, versus two days for a conventional inspection team, and our AI detection rate for sub-surface defects exceeds human visual inspection by 40 percent.”

FDOT has contracted with SkyStructure for pilot inspections on 12 bridges in District 4, including three bridges on Interstate 95 in Broward County. Results from the pilot program, published in February 2026, found the system flagged 23 defects that had been missed or underrated in the prior traditional inspection cycle.

The company is also in discussions with the Florida Department of Transportation’s State Maintenance Office about a potential statewide contract covering routine inspections of Florida’s 12,400 state highway bridges.

SkyStructure plans to use the new funding to expand its team from 28 to 75 employees, establish regional operations centers in Tampa and Jacksonville, and accelerate FAA approval for beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations.

Author: Sophia Chen

Construction Technology Editor. Covers robotics, BIM, drone inspection, AI applications, and emerging tech reshaping how Florida builds. Previously covered proptech and contech for a national trade outlet.