Durham deep-tech building autonomous tethered drones (teUAV) for airborne power generation and persistent ISR, sensing, communications, and electronic-warfare missions, primarily for U.S. defense customers.
At a glance
- Founded: 2015
- HQ: Durham
- Sector: DeepTech
- Stage: Grant
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Notes on Windlift · last checked Oct 1, 2026
Overview
Durham (2445 S Alston Ave), founded 2015 by Rob Creighton. Builds tethered drones: an elevated, persistent platform tethered to the ground for data, power, and control. Dual-use positioning across airborne power generation and sensing, communications, electronic warfare, and counter-UAS for defense, with commercial-shipping and energy applications.
Funding
Revenue grew from about $2.23M (2023) to about $7.39M (2024) per Wefunder and Kingscrowd; ran a 2025 Wefunder equity-crowdfunding raise. The $24M-plus is non-dilutive government research and contract money, not capital raised. Selected into the Fuse Accelerator Arizona Spring 2026 cohort.
Team
Founder Rob Creighton holds an MBA and a BS in Genetics from UW-Madison, with prior research-lab roles.
Government work
Has worked with the Electronic Warfare Division of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory since 2019; reports $24M-plus in historical R&D funding and a $30M SBIR Phase III contract with the NRL. The revenue base is predominantly U.S. government and DoD.
Listed roles
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