DropForce, a Vienna Start-Up Building Drones in a Suitcase, Lands Investment
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Ordering drones is yesterday’s model, printing them is supposed to be tomorrow’s: The Vienna-based start-up DropForce Systems wants to build F.P.V. drones not in a central factory but directly where they are needed. To do that, it has developed the STURM 01, a drone that can be assembled without soldering, along with a mobile production cell that fits into a transport case. BarnVentures has come on board with a 20 percent stake. Together with LNX GmbH, the business angels have invested a solid six-figure sum.
BarnVentures is run by the founders Filip Zganjer and Florian Bauer, who have built one of Austria’s largest digital groups under that umbrella. According to DropForce, both investors contribute entrepreneurial experience and their networks in addition to capital. Until then, the founders had financed development out of their own pockets.
From Light Shows to F.P.V. Drones
DropForce was founded by the aeronautical engineers Jakub Hamdard (chief executive) and Christian Mühl (chief technology officer), who both trained in aeronautical engineering at the HTL Eisenstadt technical college. Mr. Hamdard previously worked as a design engineer for satellite propulsion at the Austrian space start-up ENPULSION and as a project manager at Diamond Aircraft. Mr. Mühl worked in production engineering at the Austrian drone maker Schiebel, as well as at Airborne Technologies and Diamond Aircraft. DropForce Systems GmbH was founded in Vienna in early 2026.
The two originally wanted to build their own drone fleet for light shows because they found Chinese show drones too expensive and too unreliable. After four prototypes of their own, they realized that the bottleneck was not 3D printing but assembly, above all the soldering of the electronics. With the fifth prototype, they therefore redesigned the drone around the assembly process.
Plug In Instead of Soldering
The STURM 01 is a modular F.P.V. quadcopter. The central circuit board doubles as part of the load-bearing structure, and DropForce developed the flight controller and motor controllers itself. Electronics are plugged in, mechanical parts are screwed together and the remaining structural parts come out of a 3D printer. According to the company, assembly takes 10 to 15 minutes, depending on experience.
For DropForce, the key figure is the production cycle: A 3D printer needs about 20 minutes to print the parts for one drone. While the next unit is being printed, the previous one can be assembled. In continuous operation, one printer is supposed to produce the parts for more than 70 drones a day. Anyone who needs more capacity simply adds more printers.
For flight software, DropForce currently uses the open-source systems ArduPilot and Betaflight, and its own firmware is in development. Additional capabilities are to be added through mission modules; modules for F.P.V. flight and light shows already exist.
The Factory in a Case
DropForce calls the second part of its concept the Tactical Case: a transport case containing a 3D printer, a power supply and tools that a single person can operate. The idea is that instead of replacing damaged or lost drones through orders and supply chains, users would keep kits in stock and produce replacements on site. “Drones break or get lost in the field. Yet they are still replaced like aircraft: through orders, delivery times and procurement,” DropForce says. In the long term, it plans larger production cells with several printers in vans or containers.
The start-up wants to make money by selling finished drones and production cells, but above all from the ongoing supply of kits, components and mission modules. The platform is designed as a dual-use system. As civilian applications, DropForce lists disaster relief, search and rescue, protection of critical infrastructure and training; as institutional customers, it names armed forces, emergency services and operators of critical infrastructure.
European, With Caveats
DropForce markets itself under the label “European Sovereign UAV Systems,” but the company itself is cautious with the term. The circuit board layout and electronics belong to the start-up, which is building a European supply chain for manufacturing. Motors and standard components, however, are bought in, and rare-earth magnets in particular remain heavily dependent on China. The company therefore does not describe the STURM 01 as a fully European drone. “Our goal is to have as much as possible manufactured in Europe,” it says.
It also remains to be seen how the concept performs in the market. Technically, there is a flight-ready drone and a working production cell, but DropForce has not yet named any paying customers. The start-up is currently looking for pilot customers to test the drone and the production cell. A patent application is being prepared, and for the next growth phase, DropForce is considering further funding or a strategic partner.
A Market Flush With Capital
DropForce operates in a market that is currently attracting a lot of money: European defense tech start-ups are heading for a record funding year of about $10.5 billion (about €9 billion), with most of the money going into drones. Big players such as Helsing, Quantum Systems, Stark Defence and ARX Robotics have raised large sums. DropForce does not see itself as a direct competitor to these companies. “We start at a different point: with the question of how a drone is built, and where,” the founders say. While others develop larger aircraft or stationary production systems, DropForce is focusing on a small F.P.V. quadcopter and a production setup that fits into a case.
