The verified answer
As of Aug 2026, DEPLOY verifies Pyka: 1 model, $40.0M raised. 1 source back the record.
CategoryAgricultural robots
Overview
Pyka is an American autonomous electric aviation company based in Santa Cruz, California, developing and manufacturing autonomous electric aircraft for agricultural crop protection (Pelican Spray) and cargo transport (Pelican Cargo). Founded by CEO Michael Norcia, Pyka's Pelican Spray aircraft are operating in Costa Rica, Honduras, Brazil, and the United States. The company raised $40M in Series B funding led by Obvious Ventures to advance commercialization of its dual-use autonomous electric aircraft.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- None on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
Focus
Robot
Stage
CEO
Products
Fundingsee investors →
Deployments
Customers
Data & sources
Web sources
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Pyka on the deployment map
View the global mapPyka has no verified deployments on the DEPLOY registry yet. Explore the deployment map by place and type.
No verified deployments for Pyka on the DEPLOY record yet. Track Pyka to know the moment the first one is verified.
Relationships
Current leadership (1)
- Michael Norcia Co-Founder & CEOsecondary-verified
Founders (1)
- Michael Norciacofounder
Safety record
No incidents on record for Pyka.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Recent coverage
Pyka in third-party press
Peer companies
- DJI7 models
- Naio Technologies4 models
- WORX Landroid4 models
- Carbon Robotics3 models
- Solinftec3 models
- GreenField Robotics2 models
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- early
- Counterparty risk class
- moderate
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Funding rounds (1)
- Series B2024-09-24
$40M(reported)
Investors: Obvious Ventures, Room for Ventures, Piva Capital
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdJun 24, 2026
Added to the verified registry
Sources (1)
Market intelligence
Hiring signals
Role composition
Recent openings
- Associate Mechanical Design Engineer (Pelican)Engineering
Hardware · Alameda HQ
- Electro-Mechanical Assembly TechnicianManufacturing
Manufacturing · Alameda HQ
- Flight Support Engineer - Night Shift (Brazil)Operations
Flight Operations · Brazil
- Senior Test TechnicianOperations
Hardware · Alameda HQ
- Senior Fleet Maintenance TechnicianOperations
Flight Operations · Alameda HQ
- Senior Sales Manager (Brazil)Business
Business Development & Marketing · Mato Grosso
+4 more open roles tracked
Common questions
What is Pyka?
What does Pyka make?
Who competes with Pyka?
Who is the CEO of Pyka?
Where is Pyka headquartered?
How much funding has Pyka raised?
Where does Pyka operate robots?
Is Pyka a top robotics company?
Is Pyka safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-05
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-05
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Pyka.Peer companies
- DJI7 models
- Naio Technologies4 models
- WORX Landroid4 models
- Carbon Robotics3 models
- Solinftec3 models
- GreenField Robotics2 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Pyka from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Pyka Secures $40M Series B to Advance Commercialization of Dual-use Autonomous Electric Aircraft
Pyka raises $40M in Series B funding led by Obvious Ventures to advance commercialization of Pelican Spray and Pelican Cargo autonomous electric aircraft.
Pyka Raises $40 Million for Autonomous Electric Pelican Aircraft
Pyka raises $40M Series B for its autonomous electric Pelican Spray and Pelican Cargo aircraft, with Pelican Spray already operating in Costa Rica, Honduras, and Brazil.
Pyka raises $40M for autonomous electric aircraft
Pyka raises $40M in Series B funding led by Obvious Ventures for its autonomous electric Pelican Spray and Pelican Cargo aircraft.
Pyka Unveils The World's Largest Autonomous Electric Cargo Airplane
Pyka unveils Pelican Cargo, the world's largest autonomous electric cargo airplane, designed for middle-mile logistics.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/pyka.md
- RSS feed: /companies/pyka/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/6d5d7ffa-10f9-4dc8-9e19-af961a45f2d3
- Revision history: /companies/pyka/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- DJI7 models
- Naio Technologies4 models
- WORX Landroid4 models
- Carbon Robotics3 models
- Solinftec3 models
- GreenField Robotics2 models
Video
Today we are proud to announce the unveiling of Pelican Cargo, Pyka’s largest autonomous electric aircraft yet and the first zero-emission commercial cargo UAS of its kind. With a range of up to 200 miles, a payload of
We’re excited to share that the California Air Resources Board and California Energy Commission have awarded Pyka, in partnership with the Foundation for Califo
Pyka’s Autonomous DropShip Completes First Flight Group 3+ autonomous aircraft for contested logistics and multi-mission operations, built on a proven commerci
Pyka, the global leader in autonomous electric aviation technology has unveiled the latest addition to its fleet of purpose built industrial aircraft. Featuring
Join Pyka on our mission to bring society a safer, cleaner, and more accessible form of transportation enabled by autonomous electric aviation. View our career
#shorts Pyka and AFWERX celebrated the arrival of Pyka's Pelican Cargo, a milestone in autonomous electric aviation. This marks the start of a lease agreement u
DropShip is the next entrant in Pyka's lineup of mission-ready autonomous aircraft. It builds on the commercially proven autonomy stack behind Pelican 2 and int
Pyka today unveiled its fully autonomous low-altitude parachute airdrop capability for DropShip, the company's flagship heavy-lift autonomous aircraft designed
Meet Hannah Droesbeke, Director of Software at Pyka. Hannah started at Pyka as a Flight Test Software Engineer, helping build the foundation of our flight cont
Meet Larry Adamson, Prototype Engineer at Pyka. Larry is leading the development of new tooling and molds for DropShip, a critical step in moving the aircraft
More planes. More missions. More autonomy. Shipping out one of our multi-mission cargo aircraft to a customer in the United States. It's go time. #Robotics #
This week, Pyka crossed a major milestone: ➡️ 10,000 autonomous flights ➡️ 2,500 flight hours ➡️ 150,000 nautical miles flown These numbers represent far more
Try Acres for free: https://www.acres.co/ PYKA: https://www.flypyka.com/ Michael Norcia is CEO of Pyka, which as I mentioned earlier is an autonomous electr
✨ Pyka has introduced its next-generation autonomous cargo drone, the DropShip, marking a major step forward in aerial logistics technology. This hybrid-electr
Reality vs attention
Pyka draws attention at the 54th percentile but verifies reality at the insufficient-data level among ag robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Limited public visibility and press coverage relative to peers.
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Aug 17, 2026