Companies looking to crowdfund their drones should learn a thing or two from ONAGOfly, a Delaware, US-based startup that has already raised nearly 10 times their funding goal, and all that nearly a month before the campaign’s end.
The ONAGOfly smart nano drone is getting a lot of attention these days, due to the extremely successful Indiegogo campaign on one hand, and with a lot of exposure at CES 2016 on the other hand. There are so many factors that contribute to this success that it’s hard to decide which one to describe first.
When it comes to the manufacturer’s priorities, they like to advertise the drone’s size, along with its GPS functionality and hi-res video camera. Palm-sized drones seem to be preferred by a lot of people, especially if they are equipped with a high resolution camera. ONAGOfly scores points in both departments, as it measures only 125x125x46mm, weighs just 140 grams and carries a Sony 15 MP camera that’s capable of shooting video in 1080p at 30 fps. Oh, and on top of that, it also has a GPS “follow me” function that enables it to maintain the distance between itself and the controller.
ONAGOfly also packs an IR sensor that helps it to intelligently avoid obstacles such as walls and trees. The ONAGOfly app can be used not only for controlling the drone, but also for syncing photos and videos as they are being recorded. P2P streaming functionality enables users to watch on smartphones or tablets whatever the drone is filming.
Not at last, the ONAGOfly smart nano drone includes a 1,000mAh battery that permits flight times of up to 15 minutes. Considering that the competitors struggle to get past the 10-minute mark, what ONAGOfly has managed to do is rather impressive.
To reserve the ONAGOfly smart nano drone for yourself you need to head over to Indiegogo, where the company’s crowdfunding campaign is hosted and pledge $199 or more + $25 for shipping, if you don’t live in the US, Canada or China. Assuming that nothing goes wrong within the next 27 days, when the campaign ends, you should receive your ONAGOfly mini quadcopter in March. At the time of writing, backers had pledged $1,399,294, which is 933% of the $150,000 funding goal, fact that certifies the awesomeness of the drone. Besides the drone, there are plenty of other perks, including ProKit packs and carrying case that make the entire campaign so much more appealing.
That being said, people who commented on the above YouTube video are very skeptical, claiming that the whole thing is a scam, and that the actual promotional video is full of lies. The memory of the Zano drone, Europe’s biggest Kickstarter project that went bust after raising $3.6m is still fresh, so it’s easy to understand why they’re making such comments. On top of that, Indiegogo has a history of accepting projects that got banned on Kickstarter (remember the Skarp laser razor?), so their crowdfunding platform is not always seen with good eyes. I guess we’ll just have to wait a few more weeks to see if ONAGOfly shares the same fate.
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