CategoryDrones
Appears inMilitary & defense drones
Overview
Defense technology company building multi-mission autonomous drones for military applications including surveillance, electronic warfare, and strike. Received $820M conditional loan from DoD Office of Strategic Capital.
Reality check
Business (company-claimed)
Designs and mass-produces combat robotic systems and software for surveillance, electronic warfare and strike for US and allied customers.
Customers (company-claimed)
Supports contracts with every US military branch plus federal, local and international public safety agencies.
Portfolio (company-claimed)
C100 quadcopter, Attritable Munition strike drone, SIM flight simulator, CORE mission planning software, payloads, range extension kit, anti-jam radio.
Origin (company-claimed)
Emerged from the Drone Racing League; launched in Huntsville by engineers, drone pilots and US Special Operations veterans.
C100 (company-claimed)
A multi-mission tactical UAS for defense operations.
CORE 1.4 autonomy (company-claimed)
Adds vision-based navigation, Precision Control and Advanced Mission Orbit modes; GPS-denied navigation was validated in a test series.
Simulation (company-claimed)
The CORE simulator runs the same control software and MAVLink messaging as PDW's physical drones.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 2 deployments on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
DoD loan
Series B (company-stated, Mar 2026)
Use of proceeds (company-stated, Mar 2026)
Data & sources
Web sources
4
4 sources backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Performance Drone Works on the deployment map
View the global map2 verified deployments across 2 regions, newest verified Sep 2025. Explore where Performance Drone Works's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full Performance Drone Works deployment record →
Relationships
Current leadership (4)
- James Slider CEOreported, not verified
- Matt Higgins Co-founder & Executive Chairmanreported, not verified
- Ryan Gury Co-founder & Chief Innovation Officerreported, not verified
- Dylan Hamm Chief Technology Officerreported, not verified
Former / Previously (2)
- Abigail Stock Chief Marketing Officerreported, not verified
- Alok Gupta Chief Financial Officerreported, not verified
Safety record
No incidents on record for Performance Drone Works.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Operator customers (1)
- Performance Drone Works2 deployments
Recent coverage
Performance Drone Works in third-party press
Peers
95 peers across 1 segment. Every Performance Drone Works competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
drone(95)
57 companies in this segment · moderately_concentrated (HHI 1809.2177305910177) · leader Anduril Industries at 3057%
- AEVEX Aerospacedirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Alta Aresdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Darkhivedirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Dedronedirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Firestorm Labsdirect competitor(inferred)strong
- Havocdirect competitor(inferred)strong
Mentioned on (7)
Registry pages whose text names Performance Drone Works.
Deployments (1)
People (6)
Abigail Stock, Dylan Hamm, Alok Gupta, James Slider, Matt Higgins, Ryan Gury
Financial state
- Total funding
- $110.0M
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Funding rounds (1)
- Series B2026-03-25
$110M(reported)
Timeline
Every recorded move in Performance Drone Works’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
New supplierNew supplier: DJI
2026-08-23Supply: Drone components for PDW platforms from DJI
New supplierNew supplier: NVIDIA
2026-08-23Supply: Compute platform for AIRR system from NVIDIA
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdAug 8, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedSep 1, 2025
Attritable Multirotor Strike Drone at United States
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJan 1, 2025
Attritable Multirotor Strike Drone at United Kingdom
Sources (4)
- https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pdw-raises-over-110m-in-series-b-financing-to-expand-product-offerings-strengthen-engineering-capabilities-and-scale-production-of-modular-military-drones-302724165.html
- https://www.pdw.ai/products/c100-defense
- https://www.pdw.ai/posts/pdw-releases-core-14
- https://www.pdw.ai/posts/introducing-pdw-core-for-the-c100-multi-mission-quadcopter
Common questions
What is Performance Drone Works?
What does Performance Drone Works make?
Is Performance Drone Works publicly traded?
Who competes with Performance Drone Works?
Who is the CEO of Performance Drone Works?
How can I invest in Performance Drone Works?
Where is Performance Drone Works headquartered?
How much funding has Performance Drone Works raised?
Who owns Performance Drone Works?
Where does Performance Drone Works operate robots?
How many robots has Performance Drone Works deployed?
Is Performance Drone Works a top robotics company?
Is Performance Drone Works safe?
Methodology: Verified · 4 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-10-13
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-10-13
Sources by quality tier
- 4
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Performance Drone Works.Peer companies
- Amazon25 models
- DJI9 models
- Anduril Industries7 models
- Skydio6 models
- Autel Robotics4 models
- Baykar4 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Performance Drone Works from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Is the Pentagon’s demand signal for drones working? It depends on who you ask.
“There’s a lot of positive signaling, but we need to see the whites of the eyes: We need to see sustained, normalized demand,” said James Slider, CEO of Performance Drone Works.
Drone-mounted Leonardo DRS targeting system used in precision mortar test
A Performance Drone Works C100 drone equipped with a Leonardo DRS sensor and laser target designator supported mortar engagements during a military test at the White Sage Mortar…
U.S. special ops test drone laser for longer mortar shots
A small Performance Drone Works quadcopter carrying a Leonardo DRS laser designator guided precision mortar rounds onto targets beyond the normal maximum range of a 120 mm mortar…
U.S. Army flies C100X drone to sharpen troop training
A U.S. Army program that builds realistic enemy threats for training flew Performance Drone Works’ C100X drone at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 25, testing its…
PDW Finalizes Acquisition of RF & Communications Engineering Firm
Quantum Cyber Unveils Plans for U.S. Manufacturing Footprint as Trump Admin Looks to Fund US Drone Companies
Trump administration in talks to fund US drone companies, WSJ reports
PDW Attritable Multirotor Strike Drone Moves Into Production
PDW raises over $110M for its drone-based defense systems
PDW Raises Over $110M to Expand Military Drone Production
PDW Introduces CORE 1.4 Software Update for C100 Platform
PDW Provides Training & On-Site Support to Army Transformation in Contact Units
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/performance-drone-works.md
- RSS feed: /companies/performance-drone-works/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/05a7774f-11ac-41b2-956b-a6117ed0772e
- Revision history: /companies/performance-drone-works/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Amazon25 models
- DJI9 models
- Anduril Industries7 models
- Skydio6 models
- Autel Robotics4 models
- Baykar4 models
Video
The future of warfare? 🤨 A battle between a drone and a robot dog has gone viral in China. The purpose and the location of the firework fight remain unknown. 🎥 X/nexta_tv #shorts #news #machine #drone #robot #china #
Spotlighting UXV Technologies' partners: Performance Drone Works (PDW)'s Ron Bellavia - Director of Strategic Accounts - gives his insights regarding the multi-
In this week's Comms Check we focus on Performance Drone Works (PDW) and its CEO, Ryan Gury, who has been selected for the Department of Defense's Replicator In
This is the tip of the spear. Warfare will be conducted very differently in the very near future. THIS is what you can expect from US Warfighter.
This week on Weapons and Warfare, host Ryan Robertson sits down with Ryan Gury, the CEO and co-founder of Performance Drone Works. They dive into the grand open
AIR6 SYSTEMS | AIRBORNE ROBOTICS are manufacturers of high-performance, heavy payload drones (UAVs) for payloads of up to 10 kg. We offer highest possible flexi
Host Ryan Robertson sits down with Ryan Gury, the CEO and co-founder of Performance Drone Works. They dive into the grand opening of the new, cutting-edge 90,00
This week on Weapons and Warfare, host Ryan Robertson sits down with Ryan Gury, the CEO and co-founder of Performance Drone Works. They dive into the grand open
The company plans to manufacture approximately 60,000 drones annually from this facility.
Not so long ago, humanoid robots and high-performance drones were still the stuff of science fiction. But now they have moved out of the toy shops and into the
Heat Index
Category contender75/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Performance Drone Works draws attention at the 80th percentile but verifies reality at the 44th percentile among aerial robots. Hype Gap +35.2, 19th widest among aerial robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 2 verified deployments. Well-capitalized with $110M raised and recent funding activity. Deployment footprint remains limited relative to category peers.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Nov 7, 2026