Divyaditya Shrivastava

He is a first-generation immigrant from India. The list of fellows that the Thiel Foundation published in 2018 gives his home as Madhya Pradesh, India, and Lewis Center, OhioOhioOhio is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital is Columbus. It joined the Union in 1803 as the 17th state, the first carved from the Northwest Territory, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 11,799,448.Open the full entry.⁠[1][2]

Paladin’s 2022 press release states that he spent most of his childhood in a town about 25 minutes north of Columbus, Ohio.⁠[3]

He attended Olentangy High School. He is a drone hobbyist who flies drones recreationally and has some knowledge of coding.⁠[4][5][6]

In 2016, while he was still in high school, a friend’s house burned down. InnovationMap’s 2019 article places this in the summer before his senior year; TechCrunchTechCrunchTechCrunch is an American technology news outlet founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington and Keith Teare and headquartered in San Francisco; it mainly covers technology companies, startups, and venture capital, and hosts events such as TechCrunch Disrupt. Its ownership passed successively through AOL, Verizon, and Yahoo, and in 2025 Regent announced its acquisition.Open the full entry’s 2024 article says that he was 17 and living in Ohio, while Paladin’s 2022 press release places it just as he was getting ready to attend BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) is a campus of the University of California system; the University of California was founded in 1868 through a merger of two institutions and moved to Berkeley, California, in 1873.Open the full entry for engineering. The family was away on vacation, and a neighbor walking by called 911; the house was destroyed, and no one was hurt. TechCrunch’s 2024 article states that 911 was called right away, but that first responders took a while to arrive.⁠[6][7][8][5][3]

Accounts of his relationship to the family differ: Paladin’s 2022 press release and Gradient Ventures call it the home of a close friend; the episode description of the podcast Stories from 400 Feet calls it the home of a childhood friend in his tight-knit Indian immigrant community; DroneLife calls the family his neighbors; Paladin’s sponsored profile on Police1 calls it the home of a close family friend.⁠[3][9][10][6][11]

Afterward he spoke with local firefighters. The firefighters explained to him that because of an unreliable 911 call they had not had the right location at first, the call being one of those with inaccurate location information; in 2019 he said: “If they’d known the exact location, the house would’ve been saved.” He relays the firefighters’ account that this happens about 70% of the time; in 2021 he said: “About 70% of the time first responders go out, they don’t know the location — not accurately.”⁠[7][5][6]

Paladin’s 2022 press release writes that from the local fire chief he learned two facts: that a fire doubles in size every 30 seconds, and that first responders never have enough information when they arrive on the scene; Gradient Ventures also mentions the fire chief’s point that fires double every 30 seconds, and that 911 callers are typically unable to assess the situation accurately; in 2019 he also said: “A fire doubles every 30 seconds.” He says that the person calling 911 is usually panicking: “whenever there is an emergency, generally, the person calling 911 is panicking and can only give so much information”; “That’s when I realized this is a huge problem.”⁠[3][9][7][5]

He then studied engineering at the University of California, Berkeley; his Y Combinator founder profile lists the university’s College of Engineering. After almost two years at Berkeley he dropped out to work on the project full time; he had begun working on the idea in college, at first as a side project.⁠[4][1][6][8]

While studying at Berkeley he continued to research ways to give firefighters and other first responders timely, accurate information about emergency scenes. He said: “I talked to as many firefighters around the Bay Area as possible.” They had, he says, almost exactly the same complaint: that they almost never had any situational awareness of an emergency before they arrived. Paladin’s 2022 press release states that during his first year at Berkeley a fire destroyed a church on campus, after which he founded Paladin to send autonomous drones to 911 calls and give responders an overhead view before they arrive.⁠[6][3]

In 2018 he and his friend Trevor Pennypacker co-founded Paladin (also called Paladin Drones), with Shrivastava as chief executive. Gradient Ventures writes that the company’s origins date to 2016; a profile on Police1 sponsored by Paladin describes him as a student at the University of California, Berkeley when he founded the company.⁠[12][1][9][11]

In the sponsored profile Paladin explains that its name refers to someone who fights for a cause and recalls the knights of history known for their heroism and chivalry, but that the company focuses more on being a defender of public safety.⁠[11]

Trevor Pennypacker left Paladin in late 2019 and by August 2021 was working at TeslaTeslaTesla is an American electric vehicle and energy company whose businesses span automobiles, solar energy, and battery energy storage. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, its shares are listed on Nasdaq under the ticker TSLA.Open the full entry.⁠[12]

On June 22, 2018, the Thiel Foundation announced the 20 members of the 2018 class of the Thiel FellowshipThiel FellowshipThe Thiel Fellowship is a two-year grant program started by investor Peter Thiel and run by the Thiel Foundation that funds young people who skip or stop out of college to build new things instead. The program has been criticized by figures in education for encouraging young people to leave college.Open the full entry, among them him, listed as “Divyaditya (Divy) Shrivastava” in item 6 under “Software, hardware”; the list describes his project as technology that helps firefighters respond faster and more accurately to the exact location of an emergency, and names no company. The announcement states that the program, launched in 2011, encourages young people to pursue big ideas and start companies instead of attending college, and that fellows receive $100,000 and mentorship from the foundation’s network of technology founders, investors and scientists.⁠[2]

TechCrunch’s 2024 article states that he dropped out of college to join the Thiel Fellowship, a program led by Peter ThielPeter ThielPeter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and the first outside investor in Facebook. He is a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and founded the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young people to leave college and build new things; his public skepticism of higher education, his support for Trump in 2016, and his funding of litigation against Gawker Media have drawn controversy.Open the full entry. His Y Combinator founder profile also lists the Thiel Fellowship among his affiliations.⁠[8][4]

Paladin took part in Y Combinator’s Summer 2018 batch (S18) and completed its three-month program; its first funding came from Y Combinator. Through Y Combinator the company was connected with venture capital investors in Houston; in April 2019 he said that the company was still involved with Y Combinator.⁠[13][7][6]

In early April 2019 the Memorial Villages Police Department, in the Houston area of TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry, began a pilot of Paladin’s technology with coverage limited to Memorial Villages, Hunter’s Creek, Piney Point Village and Bunker Hill; the pilot ran for three months. Paladin’s goal at the time was to get a drone’s view of the scene within 30 seconds of a call, against the three to four minutes that first responders usually need to arrive; the drones carried thermal sensors, flew at about 200 feet and could capture details such as a vehicle’s color and body type, a suspect’s clothing and the direction in which a suspect fled, and the company was developing technology for drones to follow suspects automatically.⁠[7][14]

He called it “one of the first departments in the country to be testing this technology” and said: “We’re very limited in the area that we cover, and that’s just because we’re taking baby steps”; the company was going as carefully and deliberately as possible. He declined at the time to disclose funding plans; the company planned to hire a handful of employees in the following months.⁠[7][15]

On May 28, 2019, Paladin announced a $1.3 million seed round from Khosla VenturesKhosla VenturesKhosla Ventures (KV) is an American venture capital firm founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, the founding CEO of Sun Microsystems, and headquartered in Menlo Park, California. It made heavy early bets on clean technology, became OpenAI’s first venture capital investor in 2019, and its portfolio also includes companies such as DoorDash, Block (formerly Square), Impossible Foods, and Rocket Lab.Open the full entry and Paul Buchheit; TechCrunch’s 2021 article also names Correlation Ventures. Paul Buchheit is the creator of Gmail and was in 2024 a group partner at Y Combinator.⁠[5][12][15]

At the time Paladin’s software sent a drone to an emergency ahead of first responders so that they could map hazards and locate hot spots; it worked with DJI drones. Amid concerns about the invasiveness of such surveillance technology, the company had built software so that the drones recorded the sky en route and panned down to the ground only once on the scene. Emergency response took 8 to 15 minutes on average, while a Paladin drone could arrive in 30 to 90 seconds. He said: “These are firefighters trying to save lives and they don’t have good information.”⁠[5]

On July 29, 2019, he appeared on the podcast The Tomasz Show in a 53-minute episode about Paladin Drones’ use of autonomous drones to give first responders a live overhead view of an emergency before they arrive.⁠[1]

On August 19, 2021, Paladin publicly launched the Knighthawk, a drone custom-built for first responders, and its Watchtower software. The Knighthawk carried a 10x optical zoom camera and a thermal camera, streamed day and night video with about half a second of latency, flew for 55 minutes over several miles and could launch within a few seconds of a 911 call; en route it flew at 200 feet with its camera pointed at the horizon and turned to the scene on arrival. In Watchtower an operator places a pin on a map to send the drone to the likely site of an emergency; the video appears in the app and in 911 centers’ computer-aided dispatch systems, and flight logs and footage are uploaded after each mission.⁠[12][6]

The company then had about eight people and, by its internal data, had responded to some 1,600 emergencies since its founding, including structure fires, car break-ins and vehicle accidents. Its customers included the Memorial Villages Police Department in the Houston area and the fire department of Orange Township, Ohio, both of which held Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorizations for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flight. The company provides hardware, software and training and helps agencies obtain BVLOS certification.⁠[12][6]

He explained that the drones the company first used were not designed for automation: “The drones that we were using weren’t purpose-built for automation,” so the company developed its own communication technology so as not to lose connection; in September 2021 he said: “I didn’t really have much of a desire to get into the hardware, but there just wasn’t a solution out there.”⁠[12][6]

He said: “We’ve built a full-on platform suite, hardware, software, training, regulations, all put together in one package”; the company aimed to “help departments create autonomous drone programs in a way that’s safe,” and its long-term goal was to “have every single fire, police and first response agency use us.” Paladin began selling its products in 2021.⁠[6][12][8]

On May 6, 2022, the podcast Stories from 400 Feet released an interview in which he described how Paladin came to develop its drone as a first responder (DFR) system: he kept hearing that responders needed more information before arriving on the scene, and so built a system that can be deployed the second a 911 call is placed.⁠[10]

On June 16, 2022, he returned to Stories from 400 Feet to discuss Paladin’s work with the Elizabeth Police Department in New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the eastern United States on the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the Hudson River forming its northeastern boundary and the Delaware River its western boundary; its capital is Trenton and its largest city is Newark. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 9,288,994.Open the full entry, to obtain one of the first beyond-visual-line-of-sight waivers in Class B airspace for a DFR program; the episode title names Paladin’s Knighthawk. The show notes cite the Federal Aviation Administration’s definition of Class B airspace as generally the airspace from the surface to 10,000 feet above mean sea level surrounding the nation’s busiest airports, and call it among the riskiest and most congested parts of the National Airspace System.⁠[16]

On November 3, 2022, Paladin announced the EXT module, which gives DJI Matrice 300 and Matrice 30 drones LTE connectivity through their built-in PSDK port, so that they can fly beyond a three-mile radius from their home base. LTE is also a major factor in how Paladin obtains BVLOS waivers for its existing customers and partners without a visual observer on a roof. The release states that LTE allows for 3:1 coverage compared with radio-controlled drones. He said: “Paladin’s mission is to build technology that saves lives.” “Now, with the EXT module, departments won’t need to purchase new equipment to do it.” “Every department that wants DFR should be able to use it.”⁠[3]

In September 2024 Hurricane Helene struck Asheville, North CarolinaNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state in the South Atlantic region of the United States; its capital is Raleigh and its largest city is Charlotte. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on November 21, 1789, becoming the 12th state, and its population in the 2020 census was 10,439,388.Open the full entry; Asheville, already a Paladin customer, asked the company for help, and the Asheville Police Department deployed Paladin during the hurricane. Paladin’s team worked nights and through the weekend to help Asheville’s police locate people and drop off supplies; despite closed roads and no cell phone or internet service on the ground, Paladin’s software could control the drones remotely from the company’s Houston headquarters. He said: “I think it has painted a clear picture for me of what the future of the drone industry will look like,” and: “We were grateful that Asheville trusted us to help.”⁠[8][9]

On October 16, 2024, Paladin announced a $5.2 million seed round led by Gradient, GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry’s early-stage AI fund, with participation from Khosla Ventures, 1517 and Toyota Ventures, among others; the money was to go toward building out its software and making the company better known. Andrew BrackinAndrew BrackinAndrew Brackin is a venture investor and entrepreneur, a partner at Gradient, a co-founder of the clinical trial company Vial, and a 2013 Thiel Fellow.Open the full entry of Gradient Ventures writes that Gradient met him earlier in 2024 and was impressed by his idea of using AI to make cities safer.⁠[8][9][15]

Figures listed by Gradient show that cities had run more than 12,000 missions on Paladin’s platform, that agencies using Paladin had average response times under 90 seconds, by their own account, and that 30% of calls were resolved without dispatching ground units (nearly one-third, in InnovationMap’s wording). Paladin had recently launched Payload Drop, which delivers items such as Narcan, life vests and automated external defibrillators to the scene, and its system could detect and avoid other aircraft.⁠[9][15][8]

Paladin then had a team of about 30; the company says it had contracts with dozens of public safety departments and that its revenue was nearly doubling quarter over quarter; he says that most departments have fewer than 50 sworn officers. The company says its technology helps clear 10% to 25% of 911 calls that are false or miscalls and can dispatch a drone within 90 seconds of a 911 call. The company says that it complies with drone regulations in all 50 states, that its drones activate only for 911 calls and that they begin recording only on reaching the destination; it was receiving multiple inbound requests every week.⁠[8]

He recalls: “I got really obsessed with this problem of not having modern infrastructure for public safety”; “It seemed obvious at that point, the problems were slow response times and lack of situational awareness.” “A drone has a camera and can bridge the gap in information.” He said: “We are still early in terms of the entire market”; “We are in dozens of cities right now and have scaled pretty quickly, but that is less than 0.1% of the market.” On October 21, 2024, InnovationMap named him among that week’s Houston innovators to know.⁠[8][14]

On October 29, 2025, InnovationMap published the finalists in the Deep Tech Business category of the 2025 Houston Innovation Awards, among them Paladin; the awards event was scheduled for November 13 at Greentown Labs. The article describes Paladin as founded by him in 2018, the year it took part in Y Combinator, and states that Paladin raised another round of undisclosed size earlier in 2025 and planned to expand its DFR operations to more cities, add delivery of items such as Narcan and life vests, and improve its deconfliction features.⁠[17]

In February 2026 Paladin introduced the Knighthawk 2.0, an autonomous drone compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and showed it at the World Defense Show on a stand shared with the Portuguese manufacturer Beyond Vision. The company says the drone is made in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry, reaches the scene about 70 seconds after a call, flies for more than 40 minutes at a cruising speed above 70 km/h, carries a 4K wide camera, a 10x optical zoom camera and a thermal sensor, has precision GPS and obstacle avoidance, streams live video and telemetry over 5G/LTE, and integrates with Watchtower and Paladin EXT.⁠[18][19]

Paladin partnered with Beyond Vision to combine its DFR solution with Beyond Vision’s NATONATONATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is an alliance founded on the North Atlantic Treaty signed in 1949, with collective defence as its core principle. Its political and administrative centre is in Brussels, Belgium.Open the full entry-compliant, fully autonomous drones, and was deploying the Knighthawk 2.0 with first responders in countries including the United States, India and Portugal. The company’s goal is for autonomous drones to respond to every 911 call in the United States by 2027. InnovationMap’s article of February 20, 2026, also states that Paladin raised a round of undisclosed size earlier in 2026.⁠[18][19]

He said: “Public safety is the backbone of modern civilization. When people do not feel safe, everything suffers”; “We’re excited to launch Knighthawk 2.0 to help build safer cities.” He also said that the aim was to give any city in the world a response time of under 70 seconds for any emergency.⁠[18][19]

On June 25, 2026, Police1 published a profile sponsored by Paladin and presenting the company in its own words, with background provided by Paladin’s marketing director, Jen Dillon. In it Paladin says that it provides the full DFR ecosystem, including hardware such as drones and docks, Watchtower command center software, agency training and implementation, 24/7 maintenance and support and help with FAA compliance, that it has implemented DFR systems in “hundreds of agencies” across the country, and refers to itself as a small team; the piece gives the Knighthawk 2.0 a 70-second response time, a cruising speed above 40 mph and 40 minutes of flight time on one charge, with availability given as 2027 in one place and early 2027 in another.⁠[11]

As of November 2026, his Y Combinator founder profile lists him as founder and CEO of Paladin; Y Combinator’s company page shows Paladin as active, with a team of 12, in the SaaS, drones and govtech industries.⁠[4][13]

Paladin: Official website: https://www.paladindrones.io/ (opens in a new window).⁠[20]

Thiel Fellowship: Official website: https://thielfellowship.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[21]

X: Public account: https://x.com/Shrivastavad24 (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divyaditya-s-775959108/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]