ZenaTech raises $25M, enters Phase 3 of Pentagon Blue-UAS certification
What's the deal? ZenaTechDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a drone maker with operations in Arizona, Taiwan, and the UAE, announced that three of its platforms — the ZenaDrone 1000, IQ Square, and IQ Nano — have entered Phase 3 of the Pentagon's Blue-UAS certification process. Passing this stage, which involves penetration tests, encryption checks, and simulated cyberattacks, is required for any vendor wanting access to US government procurement lists.
Separately, the company placed roughly 11.8 million shares at $2.12 each on May 15, 2026, raising about $23.6M net of fees. The offering, led by Maxim GroupDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, also included warrants exercisable at $2.50 for five and a half years.
Why now? ZenaTech is burning cash fast. It reported 2025 revenue of roughly C$12.9M — a 558% jump from the prior year, driven by its Drone as a Service segment — but the net loss ballooned to C$45.2M. The company is building out production capacity across three countries and has signed a binding offer to acquire an Alberta-based surveying firm that specialises in drone services for oil and gas.
The $25M raise is just the first draw on a shelf registration filed in February 2026 that authorises up to $250M in securities.
What could go wrong? The market has not been kind. Shares traded at roughly €1.19 in mid-May 2026 — about 80% below their 52-week high and down nearly 55% since the start of 2026. Dilution risk looms large: the shelf registration leaves room for another $225M in potential offerings, and the warrants add further overhang.
Certification is no certainty either. Phase 3 involves external specialists stress-testing the drones' cybersecurity; failure would shut the door on lucrative defence contracts.
The signal: The Blue-UAS programme has become the critical bottleneck for Western drone makers chasing defence contracts, and the race to clear it is intensifying as NDAA-compliant procurement rules squeeze Chinese competitors out of government supply chains. ZenaTech, still at the early growth stage according to Dealroom, is betting that a multi-platform certification strategy — spanning heavy-lift, indoor, and GPS-denied environments — will differentiate it in a crowded field, but a 558% revenue jump has so far been overshadowed by a net loss more than three times that figure, underscoring how capital-intensive the pivot from hardware sales to Drone as a Service really is.
Read more: ad-hoc-news.de
