Shark Tank is a show where hopeful entrepreneurs can pitch their goods to big businesses for investments. All five sharks have now invested in xCraft Enterprises, LLC drones, so everyone knows about the company.
It is well known that the American tech company makes drones, and those drones are finding use in many fields, from mining to scanning and mapping to even defense. The company has been around longer than just making US-made remote-controlled air vehicles.
xCraft Net Worth
The commercial and consumer drone industries hire xCraft to make and design new Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). The owners, JD Claridge and Charles Manning pitched the company’s well-known drone, X PlusOne, on Shark Tank.
They made a deal with all five Sharks once in a while. xCraft is worth $34 million right now, in 2024, as per reports of Techie Gamers. The founder was born and raised in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. JD Claridge loved flying as a child. He made a working hang glider when he was seven years old.
It was his childhood dreams that led him to study electrical and aircraft engineering at LeTourneau University. Along with you, Charles Manning is from Idaho. He was born in the city of Sandpoint. He began his first business after finishing at Pepperdine University with a degree in international management.
He worked as a senior product manager at Oracle for his first job. After that, he worked as a supervisor at companies like Kochava, M-Code, and PLAYXPERT.
Setting up xCraft
Claridge had a lot of experience as a flight engineer who worked for several different airlines. In 2014, he chose to start a business with xCraft to make drones. Jones made Manning a partner so that he could help with the business side of things. A team of experts and JD worked together to make a drone that could fly up to 10,000 feet, go as fast as an airplane, and turn like a chopper.
He named it the X PlusOne, and it was a big step forward for the UAV business. It’s easy to see why their Kickstarter effort was so successful. They got more than $173,000 in pre-orders through Kickstarter and their website.
Appearance on Shark Tank
Early marketing attempts worked, but JD and Charles knew it wasn’t quite as good as it could be. They asked for $300,000 for 20% ownership on season 7 of Shark Tank. It took the founders a while to get into the Tank after flying and landing the X PlusOne in front of the Sharks.
The PhoneDrone prototype caught the attention of the Sharks because it had a big chance to reach a wide audience. The Sharks got into a fight. People told JD and Charles to leave the room because it was too rough. When the founders got back, they asked the Sharks to work together and spend $1.5 million for a 25% stake.
Four of the Sharks agreed to the deal, but Mark Cuban didn’t say a word. Cuban was unsure at first, but in the end, he agreed to join. One of the ten biggest deals ever made on the show was for $1.5 million.
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After Shark Tank
The deal with the Sharks never went through after the show, but Charles and JD still believed in their technology. They kept running the business and used crowdfunding efforts to get more money. They had a StartEngine effort in 2018 that raised more than $1 million.
After two years, the PhoneDrone Ethos got $170,000 on Kickstarter. In addition, Mountain Man Ventures and Meyer Equity gave money to the company. They were sorry to have to give up on the PhoneDrone, and there are a lot of angry customers asking for refunds for that effort.
They mostly sell to businesses, the military, and government bodies, and they currently have eight products in stock. The market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is growing quickly because more people want more efficient ways to get around.
The market for business drones is expected to grow to $35.6 billion by 2026.SEC documents show that xCraft made a net loss of $392,496 and made $199,122 in sales in 2021.
They had a net loss of $1,064,118 in 2020. The last time the company raised money on StartEngine, was in December 2021, it raised $2.2 million at a value of $34 million. Even though it’s worth a lot of money, xCraft is having a hard time making a profit.
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