– Neros, in front of an audience of 800 DoD decision makers and industry leaders, announced a $35M Series A funding round led by Vy Capital US on March 17. This comes on the heels of major announcements by the company around supply chain certification from the Defense Innovation Unit and a multimillion dollar contract from the International Drone Coalition.
In addition to the fresh lead investor, Neros gained commitments from new and existing partners, with Sequoia Capital, Interlagos, D3, and Keller Rinaudo Cliffton (CEO, Zipline) participating. This capital will go directly to the large-scale production effort the company is now undertaking, as well as development of next-generation defense systems.
The funding was spurred by the rapid progress the company has made since being founded in mid-2023 and will play a critical role in Neros’ goal to be an American drone company that competes with China on scale and technology. Neros will be continuing to manufacture increasing quantities of its first two products, Archer and Crossbow, a long range FPV drone and ground control station. Additionally, Neros is rapidly expanding its engineering team to vertically integrate cutting-edge technology that will underlie all of its future products.
“Neros represents a pivotal force in re-establishing America’s defense supply chain, addressing a critical need in an era where global security demands self-reliance and innovation. Their unique vertically integrated platform allows them to control every aspect of production, ensuring quality, cost efficiency, and scalability while eliminating dependence on foreign components — a strategic advantage that’s long overdue. With combat-proven products like the Archer FPV drone, already making an impact on battlefields like Ukraine, Neros is setting a new standard for American defense technology. Soren and Olaf are two of the strongest founders I’ve ever met — relentless, visionary, and deeply committed. America is fortunate to have this team executing a mission that’s not just about building drones, but about securing our nation’s future.”
– John Hering, Co-Founder and Partner at Vy Capital US.
The West Has a Drone Problem
For three years, the world has watched as Russia’s war on Ukraine has redefined what a modern arsenal must be. Both sides have heavily relied on consumer-grade components from China to build unprecedented numbers of inexpensive drones. Understanding the risk of reliance, both sides have pushed to manufacture these components domestically, and now these efforts are reaching large scale. However, copying designs and having the ability to produce components domestically still leaves vulnerabilities in the supply chain. Simply replicating existing designs will not be sufficient to secure a strategic advantage for the West.
“FPV drones, which stem from hobbyists and drone racing, are heavily based on open source designs and software. This is the reason they win the cost-to-performance ratio.” Said Neros CEO and Co-Founder Soren Monroe-Anderson. “However, much of the underlying technology is built on chips, modules, and core IP from China, which means it isn’t enough to just recreate existing components. We have to build new systems that are better suited for the needs of the modern battlefield, and can be produced entirely from an allied supply chain.”
The alternative and more common approach to building drones in America is to source defense-grade components like sensors and radios from existing suppliers. Although leading to impressive specifications on paper, the fundamental problem with this approach is scale and cost. The market has become saturated with expensive unmanned systems that all have similar capabilities and are unable to scale to large quantities. For the most part, this type of drone built by American brand-names has been discarded in Ukraine and replaced with homegrown solutions.
Return to American Manufacturing Excellence
Historically, America’s manufacturing strength was exemplified by consumer electronics giants like RCA, Zenith, and Motorola. However, during the 1980s and ’90s, widespread offshoring to countries with cheaper labor and streamlined supply chains depleted America’s domestic manufacturing infrastructure and expertise. Today, critical drone components — including advanced electronics, motors, optics, and sensors — remain heavily dependent on foreign suppliers, particularly in China, creating significant cost and scalability challenges. This structural gap has left U.S. drone manufacturers struggling to match the scale, cost-efficiency, and speed of global competitors.
Neros was explicitly founded to reverse this dynamic, establishing a new paradigm for American drone production. Leveraging vertical integration and powerful consumer technology, Neros has already scaled production to over 1,000 drones per month and has sights set on only making systems that can be made in 10,000s — unprecedented within the United States.
“When the War in Ukraine started, the two technologies that were immediately highlighted as novel and game changing were Starlink and FPV drones. With FPV drones, it was clear that China had a headstart and a scale advantage. Soren and Olaf had deep FPV domain expertise and a clear vision for how to manufacture drones at scale with an American supply chain.”
Said Shaun Maguire, Partner at Sequoia Capital who led Neros’ Seed funding round.
Central to Neros’s mission is delivering breakthrough performance at significantly reduced costs — systems that are orders of magnitude more efficient and effective compared to traditional defense platforms. The company’s flagship FPV drone, Archer, embodies this ethos by providing comparable precision and mission capability to traditional defense solutions like artillery systems or anti-tank missiles at a dramatically lower cost per unit. Archer’s recent recognition under the Department of Defense’s BlueUAS initiative and the Army’s upcoming PBAS program — expected to become the first large-scale procurement by the U.S. DoD of FPV drones — underscore the Pentagon’s growing commitment to affordable, scalable, and mass-deployable drone technology.
Neros is developing practical autonomy as a core element of its roadmap, progressively integrating features that improve the effectiveness of the operator without getting in the way. Rather than isolated laboratory development, Neros’s development cycle is based on enhancements to real-world systems and feedback directly from the end-users. Ultimately, Neros envisions fully autonomous drone swarms — intelligent, coordinated systems capable of dramatically reshaping defense and security operations.
Achieving these ambitious goals requires world-class talent, and Neros is rapidly expanding its team with engineers and operational experts across autonomy, robotics, hardware design, manufacturing processes, and software engineering.
“We are looking for people from all backgrounds who want to take on extreme ownership and help solve one of the most critical problems with the defense industry. The scope and depth of problems at Neros is very large and daunting. I’m looking for the rare ones who are excited by this.” said Soren.
Source: Neros