Reliable Robotics Lands $115M Extension at Over $1B to Certify Cargo Autopilot
Reliable Robotics has secured $115 million in new financing, lifting its valuation above $1 billion. The Mountain View, California-based company closed the raise as an extension to its Series D round. TechCrunch
The structure splits between equity and debt. The extension includes $90 million in equity led by Nimble Partners and $25 million in debt from Silicon Valley Bank. With the addition, the Series D now totals $275 million and total capital raised to date reaches $380 million. Other participants include Gideon Strategic Partners, RockCreek, Geek Ventures, Gold Hill Capital and Sparkwave Capital.
The company was co-founded by CEO Robert Rose and CTO Juerg Frefel. Rose is a former director of flight software at SpaceX who also worked at Tesla and Google. Frefel is a SpaceX veteran who spent nearly a decade there as an engineer.
Its technical plan centers on incremental automation rather than immediate removal of the pilot. The first product, described as continuous autopilot engagement, handles engine startup, taxiing, takeoff and landing with the pilot remaining in the aircraft. Rose expects certification of that system in 18 to 24 months.
A second certification would move the pilot out of the cockpit to a ground-control station. That step is at least three years away. The sequencing matters for expert readers. It keeps a certificated pilot in the loop for the near-term system while the company builds flight history and operational data for remotely supervised operations.
Reliable Robotics also developed an in-house solid-state collision-avoidance radar with no moving parts. Rose expects that sensor to be certified by the end of 2027. Building the radar internally gives the company control over the sensing stack that an autopilot depends on for separation, particularly in instrument conditions and in airspace with non-cooperative traffic.
To operate and learn, the company runs its own carrier. Reliable Airlines is based in Albuquerque and uses six Cessna Caravans to fly cargo six days a week.
That operating footprint helps explain earlier disclosures. As of April 2026, the company had raised $300 million in total funding and was pursuing use of its automated technology by air cargo companies including FedEx Corp. Bloomberg The company had also announced $160 million in new investment and a plan to begin autonomous cargo operations in 2026. Reliable Robotics Those figures now sit inside the updated $380 million total reported with the October extension.
The broader context here is certification strategy as product strategy. Continuous engagement with a pilot on board lowers the initial certification burden compared with uncrewed flight. It allows revenue-adjacent operation, crew workload reduction, and data collection under existing operating norms before asking regulators to approve cockpit-empty cargo legs.
Looking at what this means for cargo autonomy, the combination of owned aircraft, in-house radar, and a two-step certification path is pragmatic. Debt alongside equity suggests hardware and fleet costs that need non-dilutive runway. If the 18 to 24 month certification holds and the radar clears by the end of 2027, the company would enter the remote-pilot phase with its own sensor, its own airline experience, and a funded path to scale that kind of operation.
