Windlift

Imagine if energy, autonomy, and intelligence could be delivered from the sky, virtually anywhere on earth.

That’s the mission of Windlift. This startup has created airborne power generators — high-endurance drones that generate meaningful electricity in flight and can also accept power to remain aloft for days or weeks.

These drones are tethered to the ground, enabling energy transfer, data transfer, and control. They operate at varying altitudes, making them suitable for sensing, surveillance, and communications.

Windlift’s drones are designed to thrive in high winds and rough weather. And they replace fuel, fixed infrastructure, and complexity with a single system.

With its drones, Windlift set out to solve a major problem: delivering autonomous, persistent power in places where fuel logistics and fixed infrastructure are dangerous, costly, or simply not viable.

It needed a system that generates its own power and can provide persistent energy without intervention. It had to be compact, mobile, and cost-effective. That’s because fuel resupply in the defense industry is often dangerous, costly, and logistically complex. And fixed-grid infrastructure is costly, slow to deploy, and vulnerable to disruption.

Other “solutions” for situational data and awareness all have limitations. For example, quadcopter drones are unreliable in high winds. Land-based sensors struggle to detect and classify threats in low elevation. And unmanned surface vessels have a limited sensing range.

These limitations, in addition to needing an additional power supply, make it nearly impossible to maintain continuous situational awareness and collect accurate data at the edge, on the water, and below the surface.

Windlift’s tethered systems outperform existing solutions in nearly every category, including endurance, level of fuel dependence, weather resilience, visibility, legal operability, and cost.

Most existing commercial solutions also overlook a critical layer of the atmosphere, specifically the low-to-mid altitudes where Windlift’s drones operates.

When operating in power-generation mode, Windlift’s drones fly in a figure 8 pattern, converting the acceleration through the wind and air into rotation of mini turbines that send power down the tether to charge a battery on the ground. Each drone can deliver between three and seventy-five kilowatts of power.

When in stationary hover, they can pull power from that battery to maintain their position.

This constant hovering enables continuous surveillance, threat detection, and real-time communications, even in dangerous environments. Networked together, Windlift drones create a virtual mesh border and secured perimeter. This is increasingly important as low-flying drones and drone boats evade both ground-based radar and satellite detection.

Windlift is led by experts with experience at NASA, General Dynamics, Boeing, Siemens, and Collins Aerospace. In 2024, the company generated more than seven million dollars in revenue. And it’s generated more than twenty-four million dollars in contract revenue from the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy. For every dollar of private capital raised, Windlift has secured twelve dollars in government-contract revenue.

Windlift receives technical oversight and validation from the Naval Research Lab. And its investors include Veloquence Capital and K Street Capital, two venture-capital firms.

Notably, Windlift is following a similar path as some of today’s most valuable tech companies. Anduril ($30 billion), Palantir ($327 billion), and Shield AI ($5.2 billion) all began by solving urgent national-security challenges, then secured early funding and validation through DoD programs. Windlift is doing the same.

Team Background

Rob Creighton - Founder & CEO

Rob has led the way at Windlift since its inception in 2006.

Previously, he was an economic-development consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection. Before that, he was a lab manager and research specialist at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Genetics and an MBA.

Andy Stough - Chief Technology Officer

Andy has been with Windlift for sixteen years.

Previously, he spent a decade as a senior-design engineer with Caterpillar, a machinery-manufacturing company. Before that, he was a researcher with Ericsson, a telecommunications company.

Earlier in his career, he was a manufacturing engineer with Westinghouse, a manufacturing company. Prior to that, he was a technician with Battelle, a research company.

Andy earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State and a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Mark Aull - Chief Science Officer

Mark joined Windlift twelve years ago as its Lead Aerospace Engineer before becoming its Chief Science Officer.

Before that, he was an engineer with NASA. And prior to that, he was a teaching assistant at the University of Cincinnati, where he a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering.

Co-Investors