Why the Lily drone that was cancelled, despite raising $34 million on Kickstarter, was so highly anticipated
Founders of the highly anticipated drone called Lily, which raised $34 million in Kickstarter pre-orders in early 2015, announced on Thursday that it will not be going into production.
Despite raising all that Kickstarter money, as well as receiving $14 million in VC funding, and having discussions with Snap Inc. just last month, Lily informed pre-order customers on Monday that it was "unable" to secure the necessary financing for manufacturing and shipping.
Customers who pre-ordered the Lily drone will get refunds, but it's not a stretch to assume that they'd rather get the Lily.
Back when Lily was undergoing its Kickstarter campaign, there were few, if any, user-friendly drones that didn't require a lot of time and practice to master the controls and to capture good video with the drone's camera. I have some experience with the DJI Phantom 4, and I can say it's not easy to get good, appealing footage.
The Lily drone sought to fix that. Here are all the reasons why the Lily drone caused so much excitement and managed to collect $34 million from consumers: