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.

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