Rory San Miguel is a co-founder of Propeller Aero, with Francis Vierboom. The company was founded in Sydney in 2014 and began in the Cicada Innovations incubator and the Startmate program.
Propeller did not sell drones. It turned drone imagery into accurate 3D site maps for construction and mining. Its AeroPoint ground targets tied the data to survey accuracy.
The first product was rebuilt in 2016, the year Propeller raised an A$4 million seed round. It opened an office in Denver in 2017. By 2017 it had customers in 20 countries and had sold more than 1,000 AeroPoint units.
Propeller raised a $10 million Series A in 2018 and an $18 million Series B in 2020. Its investors include Blackbird Ventures, Costanoa Ventures and Sequoia China.