A decade ago, Parrot was best known for its bright-colored, Bebop drone that buzzed through backyards and hobbyist parks. But in a landscape now dominated by enterprise use cases, government contracts and security-sensitive buyers, Parrot has quietly reinvented itself — and the Parrot Q1 2025 earnings report shows that the strategy is working.

In its first-quarter 2025 earnings, Parrot posted €18.4 million in revenue (which is about $20 million). That’s up 17% from this time in 2024, capping off a string of solid results since its pivot away from the consumer market. Once known for competing against DJI in the race for weekend drone flyers, Parrot has found its groove by doubling down on professional microdrones and photogrammetry software. The French-based drone company seems to be emerging as one of Europe’s most important drone players in the commercial sector.

From backyard to battlefield

Parrot’s shift to enterprise drones and data solutions may have seemed like a long shot at first — especially given how dominant DJI remained in the prosumer space. But geopolitical winds have changed. Security concerns over Chinese-made drones, especially among U.S. and European government agencies, created a massive opening for trusted, non-Chinese drone makers. And Parrot pounced.

In a milestone moment this April, the company’s new-generation ANAFI drone was added to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Blue UAS “cleared list.” That designation means it meets stringent American cybersecurity and performance standards, paving the way for adoption by the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

Parrot already had a foot in the door — its ANAFI USA drone has been on the list since 2021 — but the addition of its next-gen system reaffirms its growing credibility in a high-stakes space.

Photogrammetry gains traction

While drones tend to grab the headlines, it’s Parrot’s photogrammetry software business that’s quietly become a growth engine, as evidenced by the Parrot Q1 2025 earnings report. Its Pix4D suite — which turns drone and smartphone imagery into precise 3D models — generated €7.9 million in Q1 revenue (about $9 million). That’s a 22% increase from a year prior. The fact that that segment alone accounts for nearly half of Parrot’s total revenue underscores a major shift in the drone value proposition, from flight hardware to data intelligence.

Tools like Pix4Dcatch, which enables photogrammetry capture from mobile devices, are making the technology more accessible — and more essential — across industries like construction, public safety, agriculture, and energy. Parrot’s move to push direct sales and Cloud-based software has helped land deals with major players in the U.S., Japan, the UK and Brazil.

The tl,dr: takeaways from the Parrot Q1 2025 earnings

• Commercial and government buyers now dominate demand
• Security and sovereignty concerns are shaping procurement decisions
• Data — not drones — is the long-term value play

Parrot says it expects moderate but continued growth in Q2. Perhaps more interesting to investors is that it eyes profitability for the year.

Parrot’s successful reinvention bucks a trend that has dogged many drone companies: failing to adapt to the post-hobbyist era. As regulation tightens, government scrutiny increases and enterprise customers demand robust, secure, scalable solutions, many drone startups have floundered. Others have been acquired or gone dark entirely.

But Parrot’s dual investment in hardware innovation (ANAFI’s rugged, cybersecure design) and software smarts (Pix4D’s enterprise-grade analytics) are helping it remain relevant — and profitable — in a space that’s quickly separating serious players from speculative ones.

Its strong performance in markets like North America, the UK, and Japan, paired with efficient manufacturing and logistics operations, has further insulated it from supply chain volatility and currency fluctuations.

The post Strong Parrot Q1 2025 earnings suggest its commercial pivot is paying off appeared first on The Drone Girl.

The fourth prototype of China’s Jiu Tian SS-UAV ‘Drone Mothership‘ has completed its structural assembly and is currently undergoing installation and testing, with its maiden flight scheduled for next month. The vehicle has a 25 metre wingspan and can fly for 12 hours, with a maximum range of 7,000 kilometres (4,350 miles). It has a […]

It’s been about a week since DJI announced the Mavic 4 Pro. It’s also been about a week since DJI announced that the DJI Mavic 4 Pro would ship to most countries — but the U.S. is not one of them (at least not yet). Widely anticipated to be the pinnacle of consumer and prosumer aerial imaging tech, the DJI Mavic 4 Pro has quickly become a favorite camera drone for pilots who purchased one in other countries.

But you’re a U.S. resident who pre-ordered a DJI Mavic 4 Pro anyway and have been refreshing your inbox waiting for a shipping confirmation on the DJI Mavic 4 Pro, I have some bad news: it’s still not yet shipping.  DJI hasn’t issued a clear explanation, but the writing on the wall is quite clear. 

The Drone Cold War is here

The absence of DJI’s newest model from U.S. shores is geopolitical fallout in real time. The same week China added 11 U.S. companies to its “unreliable entity list,” the U.S. slapped a 170% import tariff on most Chinese drones and components, meaning fewer Chinese-made drones and at higher costs. Long before that, the U.S. government has sought to blacklist Chinese drone companies like DJI over data privacy and national security concerns. 

“The most disruptive recent development is the imposition of steep new tariffs on Chinese drone imports,” wrote drone industry consultant Kay Wackwitz in an article for Drone Industry Insights.

But this next move is surprising even to drone pilots. The world’s leading drone manufacturer — a company that has become synonymous with drones the way Google is with search — is pulling its punches. DJI’s decision to skip the U.S. market for its most advanced drone yet — the DJI Mavic 4 Pro — is not technical, it’s tactical.

Why drone pilots need to pay attention….even if they weren’t going to buy a DJI Mavic 4 Pro anyway

For years, DJI has dominated the skies by combining China’s ultra-efficient supply chain with serious camera and flight tech. They made drones that were affordable, powerful and accessible to filmmakers, farmers and firefighters.

Now, it seems like the market for consumer camera drones — and even affordable enterprise drones — is fracturing. 

And it’s not just about the DJI Mavic 4 Pro.  The entire drone ecosystem depends on China, including motors, ESCs, lithium-ion batteries, sensors and carbon fiber frames. 

“Most commercial and industrial drones rely on a handful of critical components, many of which are (almost exclusively) produced in China,” Wackwitz wrote on Drone Industry Insights.

And what if you actually want a Mavic 4 Pro? You could order it through a friend abroad and smuggle it through customs (please don’t). Or, you could pre-order from a shop like B&H that will sell it to you, and just wait for an indefinite shipping “maybe” from a company that’s now navigating a diplomatic minefield.

In the meantime, American drone companies are trying to build a domestic supply chain from scratch. They’re “nearshoring” in countries such as Mexico, or at least outsourcing to other countries like India and Vietnam to sidestep Chinese sourcing and tariffs,

Some American drone companies say they’ll make everything in-house. Of course, expect that to cost much, much more given higher costs of living in the U.S. driving up wages, coupled with other costs like greater regulation and union rules that can also drive up prices.

DII outlined how that could look in a graphic they shared with The Drone Girl.

The Trump administration’s idea is to stimulate local drone manufacturing through protectionist policy. Optimists say that might work long-term. But it’s tough to argue that — at least in the short-term — it means fewer drones, higher prices and slower innovation.

Wha the past could tell us about the future of drones

In the 1980s, the U.S. tried to break its dependence on Japanese semiconductors. It took a decade and billions of dollars, and even then, it only somewhat worked. The parallels here are hard to ignore — and we could be at the beginning of a major realignment.

These days, the U.S. government is pushing for NDAA-compliant drones — and startups are scrambling to source parts that simply don’t exist outside China. Some experts say that’s caused innovation to stall because, well, let’s just say everyone’s too busy redesigning flight controllers from scratch.

Some U.S. manufacturers like Skydio and Freefly have fared better than others. But even their ecosystems are often tangled in Chinese parts. There is no clean break.

It goes beyond just drones. And with the drone industry, the challenge is less about flying them. The challenge is with the warehouses, customs desks and the fine print of tariff law.

The post DJI Mavic 4 Pro’s absence in the U.S. isn’t a shipping glitch — it’s a warning shot appeared first on The Drone Girl.

Once again, UAV Navigation – Grupo Oesía will participate in XPONENTIAL from May 20 to 22 in Houston, Texas. The Spanish company, hyperspecialized in Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) systems for UAS platforms, is part of Grupo Oesía and has more than 20 years of experience in the sector. This participation consolidates its role as […]