Nov 202520
Ondas Holdings takes a stake in Performance Drone Works
Veteran-led defense-technology engineer and manufacturer of advanced robotics for mission-critical national security missions.
$35 millionClosed Nov 20, 2025
Company
Performance Drone Works
Performance Drone Works designs, engineers and manufactures unmanned systems and software for defense and public safety. ↗
| Leadership | James Slider, Chief Executive Officer ↗; Matt Higgins, Co-founder & Executive Chairman ↗; Ryan Gury, Co-founder & Chief Innovation Officer ↗ |
|---|---|
| Department of War obligations | $18 million in prime contracts since fiscal 2022 ↗ |
| Ownership | Private; Series A backer RSE Ventures ↗ |
| Website | pdw.ai ↗ |
Products
- The C100 is a modular, tactical quadcopter that Performance Drone Works designed for military use. ↗
- A prototype C100 set a battery-powered small drone flight record of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 15 seconds. ↗
- AM, the Attritable Multirotor, is a multi-mission Group 1 unmanned aircraft that can be recovered and reused for ISR and payload delivery, then configured for attritable strike. ↗
- AM is an NDAA-compliant Group 1 aircraft that can be configured for ISR, payload delivery or strike. ↗
- PDW CORE is a mission planner and ground control station with a native training environment. ↗
- PDW SIM is a simulator that trains operators across terrain, weather and RF spectrum conditions. ↗
Customers
- The U.S. Army awarded PDW $20.9 million in September 2025 to supply C100 aircraft and multi-mission payloads for its Transformation in Contact initiative, the third C100 contract under that initiative. ↗
- The 18th Airborne Corps and U.S. Army Special Operations Command are among the units the September 2025 C100 award supports. ↗
- NATO allies in Europe and Indo-Pacific partners expanded their C100 procurement in the first half of 2026. ↗
Deals since 2020
Other acquisitions
- PDW acquired Vanteon Corporation, based in Rochester, New York, in summer 2026. ↗
Our coverage
- Budget · DronesArmy drone supplier PDW aims to make Ukrainian Kurbas thermal cameras in the USPDW ties the nonbinding memorandum to the component plan behind its conditional Office of Strategic Capital loan. It named no buyer, contract value or camera production date.
- Contracts · DronesPDW plans Booz Allen autonomy software for its AM drones and Army-bought C100The AM package entered controlled testing on Sept. 30. The Oct. 9 announcement named no government buyer, contract or funding for the software on either aircraft.