Neros secures $450M federal loan to build US drone supply chain
What's the deal? Neros has signed a conditional loan commitment of up to $450 million from the Office of Strategic Capital, part of the US Department of War, to expand domestic manufacturing of small drones and their components. The Torrance, California company is adding $165 million of its own equity, bringing the planned project to $615 million.
What's the endgame? Neros wants to vertically integrate production — building not just airframes but motors, radios, flight electronics, sensors, and batteries in-house. It aims to reach one million drones a year by 2028, with the facility also supplying components to other US and allied drone makers.
Why now? The commitment advances Executive Order 14307, "Unleashing American Drone Dominance," and follows a federal push to onshore drone production and cut reliance on Chinese parts. In July, the office made a similar commitment of up to $820 million to Performance Drone Works.
By the numbers: The deal ranks among the larger drone-sector financings on record, in roughly the 55th percentile by amount. It follows Neros' $250 million Series C in August at a reported $2.5 billion valuation, and recent contract wins — including a 14,000-drone Pentagon order it values above $100 million.
What could go wrong? The loan is conditional. Neros must still satisfy financial, legal, technical, and due diligence requirements before financial close, so the money is neither delivered nor guaranteed. The target output also assumes sustained demand that has not been locked in.
"OSC's investment will turbocharge Neros' ability to manufacture drones and components critical for the production of drone systems," said David A. Lorch, director of the Office of Strategic Capital.
Chief executive officer and co-founder Soren Monroe-Anderson said the capital "puts Neros on the path to one million drones per year by 2028."
The signal: The Pentagon's acting Defense Innovation Unit head says the US is "starting from basically zero" on mass-producing cheap drones, against a Russia expected to build 7.3 million this year. Deals like this one show Washington betting on domestic industrial scale — and on in-house component manufacturing — to close that gap.
Read more: prnewswire.com
Image credit: Neros
