The Sky Is No Longer the Limit: Drones as a Service Adoption Reaches Critical Mass Projected to Exceed $250 Billion Growth

Drone-as-a-Service Is Transforming How Companies Inspect, Monitor, Map, and Manage Critical Assets

Market News Updates News Commentary

NEW YORK, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Businesses are increasingly turning to Drone-as-a-Service (DaaS) to gain access to advanced drone technology without the expense of purchasing, maintaining, and operating their own fleets. Instead of investing in aircraft, software, pilots, training, and regulatory compliance, companies can simply contract drone service providers to perform aerial inspections, mapping, surveying, infrastructure monitoring, security patrols, precision agriculture, construction progress tracking, environmental assessments, and asset management. This flexible, subscription-based model allows organizations to deploy drones whenever needed while lowering operating costs and improving efficiency across a wide range of commercial operations. Companies on the move in the AUV/Drone industries include ZenaTech, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZENA), Safe Pro Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SPAI), EHang (NASDAQ: EH), Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT), Ondas Inc. (NASDAQ: ONDS).

The market opportunity is expanding at an impressive pace. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global Drone Services Market is projected to grow from US$42.41 billion in 2026 to approximately US$261.32 billion by 2034, representing a remarkable 25.52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Growth is being fueled by increasing adoption across construction, energy, utilities, mining, agriculture, logistics, insurance, telecommunications, and real estate, where drones are delivering faster data collection, greater operational accuracy, and significant cost savings compared to traditional inspection and surveying methods. Continued advances in artificial intelligence, autonomous flight, LiDAR, thermal imaging, and cloud-based analytics are making commercial drone services even more valuable for enterprise customers.

Looking ahead, Drone-as-a-Service is expected to become a standard business tool rather than a niche technology. Companies are increasingly integrating drone data directly into digital workflows, allowing managers to monitor assets, detect maintenance issues, track inventory, improve workplace safety, and make faster operational decisions using real-time aerial intelligence. As regulations continue to evolve and beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations become more common, commercial drone deployments are expected to accelerate even further. For businesses seeking greater efficiency, lower costs, and better data, DaaS is emerging as one of the fastest-growing technology segments in the global industrial economy.

ZenaTech (NASDAQ: ZENA) Drone as a Service Closes 26th Acquisition of an Ohio-based Land Surveying Company Licensed in Four States - First location based in Ohio and the 12th U.S. state expands DaaS to additional construction, infrastructure, energy and public works customer opportunities - ZenaTech, Inc. ($ZENA) (FSE: 49Q) (BMV: ZENA) ("ZenaTech"), a technology solution provider specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence) drone, Drone as a Service (DaaS), enterprise SaaS, and Quantum Computing solutions, announces that it has completed the acquisition of Dayton, Ohio-based BA Land Professionals LLC, a surveying firm licensed to operate in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. The acquisition marks ZenaTech's 26^th Drone as a Service acquisition to date and first location in Ohio, also further expanding the Company's U.S. footprint to 12 states covering the construction, infrastructure, energy and public works sectors.

"Our Ohio acquisition opens the door to four states at once, which is exactly the kind of leverage we look for to boost our strategy," said Shaun Passley, Ph.D., ZenaTech CEO. "The senior management team at BA Land Professionals brings a total of 40 years of surveying expertise and long-standing relationships across multiple sectors, giving us an established, trusted platform to introduce our drone and LiDAR capabilities into a region with substantial construction, infrastructure, and energy activity. This is our 26th acquisition, reflecting the continued execution of our roll-up strategy as we build a nationwide network of Drone as a Service locations anchored by established customers and revenue."

BA Land Professionals is a full-service Professional Land Surveying Firm with deep customer relationships in the building and construction, energy, industrial and government sectors. They specialize in land surveying, construction layout, topographic and boundary surveys, ALTA/NSPS surveys, drone and LiDAR mapping, and GPS control services utilizing a variety of the most efficient technologies including robotic total stations, GNSS equipment, drones and scanning technologies.

Ohio presents a significant opportunity for the expansion of ZenaTech's Drone as a Service operation, supported by the state's large and diverse base of construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, energy and agricultural activity. The Company plans to target drone-based services including construction progress monitoring and 3D site mapping through its ZenaWorx platform, land surveying and geomatics, utility and powerline inspections, industrial facility, transportation infrastructure, oil and gas infrastructure monitoring, and precision agriculture. ZenaTech believes Ohio's growing data center, advanced manufacturing, logistics and energy sectors, combined with ongoing infrastructure investment, create substantial opportunities to deploy recurring, technology-enabled drone services that improve project visibility, speed, safety, accuracy and cost efficiency for customers across the state.

ZenaTech's Drone as a Service platform provides business and government clients with on-demand or subscription-based access to faster and superior turnkey drone-based services provided on site for a host of surveying, inspection, maintenance, power washing, inventory management, and precision agriculture services, without the capital costs or operational burdens of drone ownership. By acquiring established, profitable service companies currently using low-tech processes and ripe for drone innovation, ZenaTech is building a global, multi-service DaaS network of locations in communities anchored by existing customers and revenue, for next-gen drone integration designed for speed, precision, data, and safety benefits. The company is continuing to build its global business and network of locations as well as its integration of drones and new services. Continued… Read this full release and additional news for ZENA by visiting: https://www.zenatech.com/newsroom/

Why investors are watching the Drones-as-a-Service market

• Rapid adoption of Drone-as-a-Service across construction, energy, utilities, mining, and agriculture
• Growing demand for AI-powered aerial inspections and real-time data analytics
• Increasing use of autonomous drones for infrastructure monitoring and asset management
• Expansion of drone delivery and logistics services
• Rising adoption of LiDAR, thermal imaging, and high-resolution aerial mapping
• Greater use of drones for insurance claims, environmental monitoring, and public safety
• Continued advances in autonomous flight and cloud-based analytics
• Regulatory progress supporting expanded commercial drone operations and BVLOS flights

In other industry recent and current news of note:

Safe Pro Group Inc. (Nasdaq: SPAI) ("Safe Pro" or the "Company"), a developer of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled defense, security, and situational awareness solutions, recently announced that it has been selected by AFWERX for a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract focused on the development of a new AI dataset using images of Foreign Object Debris/Damage (FOD) that are commonly encountered on both U.S. Air Force (USAF) and civilian airfields to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force (DAF).

The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small businesses and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded.

EHang (Nasdaq: EH), the world's leading Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) technology platform company, announced the successful completion of the first flights of its EH216-S pilotless electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in Switzerland. This latest achievement expands EHang's global flight footprint to 22 countries. The milestone flights event in Quinto, Ticino demonstrates the potential of autonomous eVTOL technology to overcome challenging mountainous terrain while supporting the future application in regional logistics and tourism.

The flights were conducted in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), the Municipality of Quinto, and DroneVia, EHang's strategic project partner in Switzerland. This milestone represents a crucial step towards building the safe and long-term deployment of AAM across the country and towards advancing operational validation, airworthiness certification, airspace management, and commercial operations.

Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCAT) ("Red Cat" or the "Company"), a U.S.-based provider of advanced all-domain drone and robotic solutions for defense and national security, recently announced the date for the release of its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026 and its participation in upcoming investor conferences.

Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call - Red Cat will report its second quarter 2026 financial results after the close of U.S. financial markets on Thursday, August 6, 2026, and will host a live Video Webinar at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss the results. The Video Webinar will be conducted on the Zoom platform and questions will only be taken from Video Webinar participants. Participants may register in advance to join the live Video Webinar on Zoom at Red Cat's Investor Relations website at https://ir.redcatholdings.com/news-events. Log-in instructions will be available after registering for the event. An archived replay of the event will be available on Red Cat's investor relations website beginning approximately two hours after the call concludes.

Ondas Inc. (Nasdaq: ONDS) ("Ondas" or the "Company"), a leading provider of advanced autonomous systems and next-generation defense and security technologies and services, recently announced a $6.9 million order from the Australian Department of Defence for its DTIM Single Operator Counter-sUAS Kits, secured in partnership with in country distributor HIFraser.

The order was formally awarded to DZYNE Technologies ("DZYNE"), now part of Ondas. Following the acquisition of DZYNE, the counter-UAS technologies and teams are now operating within Ondas Sentinel, the Company's dedicated U.S. defense division.

Ondas DTIM Kits deliver Detect, Track, Identify and Mitigate (DTIM) capability in a compact, single-operator package, combining the proven DTI detection platform with the globally fielded Dronebuster® (DB4) handheld effector. More than 3,000 Dronebuster® units have been deployed worldwide.

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