These drone startups are winning the war for government contracts

Founders include: Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Joseph Chen

Total funding: $6.8 billion, according to the company

Founding year: 2017

Key investors: Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, 8VC, Lux Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Elad Gil

Number of employees: 6,000, according to the company

What it does: Founded in 2017 after Palmer Luckey was ousted from Facebook, now Meta Platforms, Anduril makes a suite of autonomous products and AI systems for militaries. The company produces several air systems for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and search and rescue. Earlier this year, President Donald Trump called Anduril's Roadrunner vertical takeoff and landing drone (VTOL) — which can also be configured into a "high-explosive interceptor variant" — a "nasty looking thing" at a press conference.

Founders include: Dan Magy, Chad McCoy, Ian Muceus

Total funding: $49.5 million

Founding year: 2022

Key investors: New Enterprise Associates, Washington Harbour Partners, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin, Craft Ventures

Number of employees: 110

What it does: Firestorm's flagship product, xCell, is a micro-factory that can quickly produce drone replacement parts and small aerial vehicles that can be configured for specific uses. The company also makes its own suite of modular drones, such as the Tempest, which can be reconfigured by warfighters looking to adjust the drone's payload and propulsion. Investment in the technology comes as the Pentagon seeks ways to ramp up drone production in the field, especially in contested areas.

Founders include: Niklas Koehler, Torsten Reil, Gundbert Scherf

Total funding: $1.5 billion

Founding year: 2021

Key investors: Accel, General Catalyst, Lightspeed, Prima Materia

Number of employees: 900

What it does: Headquartered in Munich, Helsing makes AI battlefield software. Helsing's latest fundraise, a $695 million round in June led by Prima Materia, a fund founded by Spotify chairman and CEO Daniel Ek, makes the company one of the more well-financed European startups. The company also makes a strike drone, called HX-2, and Ca-1 Europa, an uncrewed fighter jet. And it's moving into the maritime space as well: In October, Helsing acquired Blue Ocean, a marine technology company specializing in autonomous underwater vehicles.

Founders include: Ethan Thornton

Total funding: $197 million, according to the company

Founding year: 2023

Key investors: Bedrock, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital

Number of employees: 200, according to the company

What it does: Like many of its competitors, Mach Industries is banking on the future of warfare, prioritizing mass-produced, cheap, smaller drones over prime contractors' multimillion-dollar fighter jets. With a development contract from the Pentagon, Mach is making a VTOL strike aircraft called Viper. It's also working on Glide, a high-altitude glider that can deliver munitions to locations thousands of miles away.

"Mach takes a deeply vertically integrated, hardware first approach to defense, rapidly iterating and mass manufacturing our products to make sure the West wins in the emerging era of unmanned wars," Ethan Thornton, CEO and Founder of Mach Industries said in an email.

Founders include: Olaf Hichwa, Soren Monroe-Anderson

Total funding: $121 million, according to the company

Founding year: 2023

Key investors: Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital, Interlagos

Number of employees: 94, according to the company

What it does: Neros makes drones and ground control stations. It's selling its flagship first-person view (FPV) drone, Archer, to the US Army as part of its Purpose-Built Attritable Systems program. Earlier this year, Neros also received a $17 million contract from the Marine Corps for roughly 8,000 FPV drones. Cofounder Soren Monroe-Anderson told Business Insider in an email that the company is building "a secure, China-free supply chain."

Founders include: Armin Busse, Tobias Kloss, Michael Kriegel, Florian Seibel, Michael Wohlfahrt

Total funding: $535 million

Founding year: 2015

Key investors: Peter Thiel, Thiel Capital

Number of employees: 550

What it does: The German, Thiel-backed company Quantum-Systems makes a suite of drones, sensors, as well as mission and mapping software. Its Trinity Pro is an electric VTOL drone used for mapping terrain.

Founders include: Andrew Rieter, Ryan Tseng, Brandon Tseng

Total funding: $1.6 billion, according to the company

Founding year: 2015

Key investors: Andreessen Horowitz, United States Innovative Technology, L3 Harris Technologies USIT

Number of employees: 1,200, according to the company

What it does: Shield AI makes the V-BAT, a VTOL drone, and the X-BAT, an AI-powered VTOL fighter jet. In July, the US Coast Guard completed testing of the V-BAT as "preparation for future installation of the V-BAT UAS [unmanned aircraft systems]" across its vessels, according to a press release. The company also develops Hivemind, an AI software tool to manage uncrewed aerial systems.

"Customers using our AI-piloted drones generate strategic results and outcomes," Brandon Tseng, cofounder and president told Business Insider in an email, touting the company's 165 flights in Ukraine and 24 strategic strikes from this year. "We walk the walk."

Founders include: Adam Bry, Abe Bachrach, Matt Donahoe

Total funding: $740 million, according to the company

Founding year: 2014

Key investors: Axon, Linse, NVIDIA, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Next47

Number of employees: 812, according to the company

What it does: Skydio is one of the earlier movers in the drone space. Founded in 2014, the company makes autonomous drones for government and commercial use. Its X10 drone — a small, AI-powered, uncrewed vehicle — can be outfitted with anything from a telephoto lens to a radiometric thermal camera. Police departments and county sheriff's offices have used Skydio drones to track crime, according to the company's website.

Founders include: Alex Pachikov, Chris Eheim, Nick de Palézieux

Total funding: $33 million, according to the company

Founding year: 2016

Key investors: Sequoia, General Catalyst, Stanley Ventures

Number of employees: 40, according to the company

What it does: Sunflower Labs develops an autonomous security drone system called Beehive, a network of drones that the company says can surveil large commercial properties — such as data centers, warehouses, and other industrial sites — potentially deterring and capturing security footage of theft and vandalism. When it detects a threat, a Sunflower Labs drone — known as a Bee — emerges from its dock and autonomously navigates to the designated location.

Founders include: Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, Keenan Wyrobek, Ryan Oksenhorn

Total funding: $1.2 billion

Founding year: 2014

Key investors: Sequoia Capital, Slow Ventures, Valor Equity Partners

Number of employees: 1,400, according to the company

What it does: Zipline aims to make delivery even more seamless than Uber: Customers can place orders through the Zipline application on their phones, and the company's drone will handle the rest. The drone flies at 300 feet during delivery and sounds "like a breeze in the trees," according to the company. Zipline advertises companies such as Walmart, Panera Bread, Sweetgreen, and Chipotle as partners. In 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorized Zipline to deliver commercial goods beyond the visual line of sight — meaning outside an operator's direct line of sight — around Salt Lake City. In 2024, the FAA approved Zipline's airspace traffic system, which the company says can manage drone traffic.