Construction and mining machinery giant Caterpillar has acquired California drone and geospatial data company Skycatch without disclosing the price. Skycatch raised about US$75 million of private funding from its formation in 2013 including a significant 2017 round led by major Caterpillar rival Komatsu.
Caterpillar’s acquisition of Skycatch follows its recent $736 million purchase of Australian mining software company RPMGlobal.
New York Stock Exchange-listed Caterpillar’s resources division president Denise Johnson said at a November 2025 investor day RPMGlobal was “the first of the technology investments we intend to do in this space”. She said there was “a lot in the sensor space that we’re looking at that could aid the digital space”.
“We’re doubling down on our role as an advanced technology leader, with rapidly growing autonomy, and expanding our technology suite with something we’re calling precision mining,” Johnson said.
“Our vision is to build an ecosystem of products and services enabled by technology to help our customers become safer, more productive, efficient and lower their total cost per tonne.
“In mining, like in other industries, our customers’ ability to use data to drive insights and efficiencies in operations will be a key differentiator. At Caterpillar we are uniquely positioned in our ability to integrate data from machines, from energy systems and infrastructure and especially as we move further into autonomy and precision mining, to help customers be successful.”
Johnson said this week: “By integrating near-real-time, high-resolution spatial data into both RPM and MineStar solutions we can help customers improve mine site performance by enhancing safety, productivity and predictability across their operations using both staffed and autonomous fleets.”
Skycatch, which calls itself an industry leader in drone automation and geospatial data analysis, is based in San Francisco and was founded by computer software and hardware engineers Christian Sanz and Christopher Bumgardner. Its earliest private funding rounds brought in investors such as Google Ventures, Bee Partners and Avalon Ventures. Autodesk, Komatsu, ADB Ventures and Wavemaker joined later funding rounds.
Sanz claimed five years ago Skycatch had delivered products to more than 10,000 sites in Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Australia, Canada, the US, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Thailand and Japan.
He said this week: “When we started Skycatch our vision was simple but ambitious … Give industries access to accurate, near real-time geospatial data so they could make better decisions, operate more safely and unlock new levels of productivity.
“We started by helping construction teams understand their jobsites faster and with greater confidence. That foundation led us into mining, where we spent years building technology that delivers near real-time geospatial intelligence to many of the world’s largest mining operations.”
Posting as the “former CEO at Skycatch”, Sanz said becoming part of Caterpillar was “not the end of Skycatch”.
“It’s the beginning of a much bigger chapter. By bringing Skycatch together with Caterpillar’s MineStar ecosystem and RPMGlobal’s planning solutions, we can help connect planning, operations, and execution in ways that simply weren’t possible before.”
