Pyka

Autonomous electric airplanes

flypyka.com

HQ: Alameda, CA, USA

51-200

Industrials

Company research

Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals

Updated Jul 29, 2026

Overview

Pyka is an Alameda-based dual-use autonomous aircraft company that designs and manufactures electric, heavy-lift unmanned aircraft for crop protection, cargo logistics, and defense missions.

Primary product

Autonomous electric aircraft platform line, especially Pelican 2 (crop protection) and Pelican Cargo/DropShip (cargo and defense logistics)

Founded

2017

Headquarters

950 W. Tower Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501, USA

Team size

100-150

Work style

Flexible

Industry

Robotics Engineering

Sub-industry

Autonomous electric aircraft / UAS

Offices

950 W. Tower Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501, USA (HQ)

1960 Mandela Pkwy, Oakland, CA 94607, USA

Business model

Aircraft manufacturing

Aerial spraying operations

Cargo/logistics aircraft

Defense logistics

Funding

Stage

Series B

Total raised

$99M

Latest round

Series B · Sep 2024

Latest amount

$40M

Series B

Sep 2024 · Obvious Ventures

$40M

Series A

Apr 2022 · Piva Capital and Prelude Ventures

$37M

Seed

Dec 2019 · Prime Movers Lab

$11M

Seed+

Jan 2019

$8M

Post-Y Combinator round

Jan 2018 · Y Combinator

$3M

Y Combinator round / early seed

Jan 2017 · Y Combinator

$3M

People & investors

Leadership

Michael Norcia

Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Chuma Ogunwole

Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer

Kyle Moore

Co-Founder, Software Fellow

Nathan White

Co-Founder, Head of Flight Operations

Volker Fabian

Chief Commercial Officer

William Mouat

General Counsel

Hannah Droesbeke

Director of Software

Monisha White

Sr. Manager, People Operations

Andrew Schultz

Head of Technical Infrastructure

Hira Ahmad

Director of Manufacturing

Adam Howat

VP of Finance

Jake Hart

Business Development Director, Government

Investors

Bold Capital Partners

Data Collective

Data Collective (DCVC)

Work & culture

Mission-driven and collaborative; public career materials describe a pet-friendly Alameda HQ and team outings/training, with an emphasis on designing, building, testing, and deploying real aircraft.

Work style

Flexible

Compensation

Public job postings show equity plus competitive pay: software roles list roughly $118k-$168k, senior software $165k-$196k, electrical engineering $108k-$192k, associate electrical engineering $83k-$105k, and flight test/operator roles at about $34.50-$45/hour, all depending on location and experience.

Benefits

Employer-sponsored health insurance

Employer-sponsored dental insurance

Employer-sponsored vision insurance

FSA with employer matching

401(k)

Paid holidays

Generous PTO

Additional unpaid time off

Voluntary short-term disability insurance

Long-term disability insurance

Life insurance

Pre-tax commuter benefits

Free catered lunch

Plenty of snacks

Product & market

Pricing

Primarily aircraft sales with enterprise/operational deployment; Pelican 2 was publicly listed at a starting price of USD 550,000, with additional support and mission-specific deployment likely layered on top.

Differentiators

—Dual-use platform spanning agriculture, cargo, and defense
—Fully autonomous electric aircraft with no onboard pilot
—FAA commercial authorization for commercial operation
—Proprietary autonomy stack and in-house propulsion/airframe tech
—Large payload heavy-lift capability
—Real-world commercial operations across multiple continents
—Rapid adaptation from commercial UAS to defense logistics
—Low-drift, precision agricultural spraying

Technology

Pyka.OS

Pyka.Perception

Pyka.FlightControl

Pyka.PathPlanning

Pyka.Sim

Pyka.Comms

Pyka.GUI

FPGA+SoC real-time compute

LiDAR-first sensor fusion

Radar

GPS

Starlink SATCOM

Iridium SATCOM

carbon-fiber airframes

custom avionics

batteries

electric propulsion

hybrid propulsion for DropShip

Python

SQL

Customers

SLC Agrícola

Dole

Heinen Brothers Agra Services

Skyports Drone Services

Grupo HAME

Embraer

U.S. Air Force / AFWERX

UK Ministry of Defence

U.S. Army Reserve

Competitors

Reliable Robotics

Elroy Air

Sabrewing

Dronamics

DJI Agriculture

XAG

Hylio

Scale & contact

Estimated monthly visits

13.7K

pyka@flypyka.com

Latest news

Pyka Executes Autonomous Airdrop Resupply and Casualty Evacuation Missions at U.S. Army Reserve CSTX Exercise

PR Newswire / Pyka · Jun 2026

Pyka said DropShip completed a 20-mile autonomous resupply flight, a 200-pound precision airdrop, a grass-runway landing, and a casualty-evacuation demonstration during a U.S. Army Reserve exercise.

Pyka's Autonomous DropShip Completes First Flight

Pyka · Apr 2026

Pyka said its DropShip heavy-lift autonomous aircraft completed first flight six months after program launch, using its commercial autonomy stack to target contested logistics and multi-mission operations.

Pyka Flies Dropship Hybrid-Electric UAS For Contested Logistics

Aviation Week · Apr 2026

Aviation Week reported on DropShip’s first flight and Pyka’s move into hybrid-electric contested-logistics missions.

Pyka and Foundation for California Community Colleges Awarded CARB and CEC Grant for Commercial-Scale Zero-Emission Autonomous Aviation Demonstration in California Agriculture

PR Newswire · Apr 2026

Pyka was named lead technology partner on a California zero-emission aviation demonstration project for agricultural operations using Pelican 2, funded by CARB SHIFT and supported by the CEC.

Pyka and SLC Agrícola Expand Partnership Following Successful Growing Season with Pelican 2

PR Newswire · Jan 2026

SLC Agrícola placed a follow-on order for Pelican 2 after a successful growing season, citing gains in operational efficiency, spray quality, and reliability.

Jobs and careers at Pyka

20 jobs at Pyka

Final Assembly/Prototyping Technician

On-site

Hardware

Alameda HQ

Today

On-site

Full-time