Drone companies are getting bigger, and that subtle shift in bigger drone company headcount signals the industry’s maturation from scrappy startups to sustainable businesses.

Just look to the Global State of Drones 2025 report from drone market research company Drone Industry Insights, which showed some fascination insights in a survey they conducted in mid-2025 of 768 people within the drone industry spanning 87 countries.

In 2024, 55% of surveyed companies had fewer than 10 employees. In 2025, that figure dropped to 48.2%. Meanwhile, the share of companies with between 50 and 200 employees grew to 37%, up from 32% in 2024. These might seem like minor changes, but they represent something significant: the drone industry is graduating from the garage startup phase to the sustainable business phase.

Why drone company headcount matters

Company size is a proxy for business maturity, market validation and sustainability. A 50-person company is fundamentally different from a 5-person company:

• Specialized roles: Small companies have generalists wearing multiple hats. Larger companies can afford specialists. That might include dedicated sales teams, customer support, compliance officers or software developers focused on specific features.
• Operational stability: When a key employee leaves a 5-person company, it’s a crisis. When someone leaves a 50-person company, it’s manageable.
• Customer confidence: Enterprise customers are more comfortable buying from established companies with the resources to support long-term relationships.
• Investment capacity: Larger companies can invest in R&D, marketing and infrastructure that small companies simply can’t afford.
• Regulatory compliance: As regulations become more complex, having dedicated personnel to handle compliance becomes essential rather than aspirational.

The shift from 55% to 48% of companies under 10 employees might seem small, but it represents hundreds of companies crossing a critical threshold from “startup” to “scale-up.”

What’s particularly interesting about this growth is its timing. The drone industry has been experiencing a funding freeze since its 2021 peak. Venture capital has dried up, investment dollars are scarce and “acquiring additional funding to scale up” jumped to the third-biggest challenge facing the industry.

So how are companies growing without external funding? The answer reveals a healthy shift: they’re growing on revenue, not runway.

Companies that survive the funding drought are those with real customers, proven business models and positive unit economics. They’re hiring because they need people to serve customers, not because VCs are pushing growth-at-all-costs strategies.

This is sustainable growth. Sure, it’s slower than venture-fueled hyper-growth, but it’s more likely to last.

The differences in drone company headcount across sectors

DII’s survey shows that hardware companies increased their share among respondents from 18% to 24%, with most of that growth coming from the service sector.

Hardware companies — drone manufacturers and component suppliers — typically require more employees than software companies. Manufacturing, quality control, assembly, testing and logistics all require hands-on labor.

The growth in hardware company representation, combined with the overall increase in company size, suggests that manufacturing is scaling up. These aren’t garage operations anymore — they’re proper factories with production lines, inventory management and supply chains.

The 50-200 employee sweet spot

The notable growth in companies with between 50-200 employees suggests:

• Product-market fit: You don’t sustain 50+ employees without proven products and paying customers.
• Operational maturity: Companies at this scale have established processes, defined roles and systematic operations rather than ad hoc firefighting.
• Geographic presence: Many companies at this size have expanded beyond their initial market, with regional offices or distributed teams.
• Diverse revenue: Rather than relying on one or two major customers, companies at this scale typically have diversified customer bases.
• Investment capacity: They can afford to invest in next-generation products, enter new markets and weather economic uncertainties.

This size also represents something less tangible but equally important: legitimacy. A 75-person drone company is taken seriously by enterprise customers, regulators and potential partners in ways that a 7-person startup simply isn’t.

Meanwhile, the proportion of companies with more than 200 employees “remains largely unchanged” according to the survey. That suggests the drone industry has a stable base of large, established players.

Looking ahead to 2026, these mid-sized companies will either continue to scale toward market leadership, or likely get acquired by larger players seeking drone capabilities.

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