A venture capital firm just bet £2.5 million on oil companies using drones

REUTERS/Charles PlatiauCould this be the future for the oil industry? Note: pictured drone is not a Sky-Futures product

London venture capital fund MMC Ventures is betting £2.5 million ($3.8 million) on drones being the future for the oil and gas industry. 

MMC has invested the sum in five-year-old London start-up Sky-Futures, which uses drones to help monitor and inspect oil and gas facilities.

The company, which was founded by two UK army veterans and a former British Airways pilot, already works with majors including BP, BG Group, Shell, and Statoil. Sky-Futures has also just won approval to fly in US airspace, opening up a huge market of it.

MMC's Simon Menashy said Sky-Futures' technology "changes the game for platform operators in terms of cost, safety and depth of analysis."

The £2.5 million funding is Sky-Futures first investment from an institution and is thought to be one of the biggest early-stage investments in a drone company in Europe. ASOS founder Nick Robertson was an early investor in the business.