- Dronamics plans to go public via a SPAC merger on Nasdaq, with a $400 million pre-money valuation.
- The SPAC’s trust is now valued at $99.4 million, down from $287.5 million at its 2024 IPO.
- The deal is structured to generate $100 million in net cash, though it has received no PIPE commitments to date.
Dronamics started when Konstantin Rangelov, an aerospace engineering student in the Netherlands at the time, couldn’t find a Bulgarian cheese in the local market. His brother Svilen didn’t want to send another package to Europe, so Konstantin suggested a better way.
12 years on, a conversation became a plan to go public on the Nasdaq. Dronamics, based in Sofia and a long-range cargo and defence drone specialist, announced it is merging with GP-Act III Acqu, a Nasdaq-listed SPAC known as GPAT.
The deal values Dronamics pre-new investment and suggests an enterprise value of around $500 million. Existing shareholders will retain all their equity.
“The signing of this business combination agreement represents an important milestone for Dronamics as we prepare for the next stage of our growth. We believe the Black Swan can create a new category in autonomous aviation by combining long-range capability, meaningful payload capacity and the potential for attractive operating economics across cargo logistics, national security and other mission-critical applications. The proposed transaction with GPAT and a Nasdaq listing would support our plans to accelerate commercialization, expand manufacturing capacity, and launch operations in the US and beyond,” said Rangelov, co-founder and president of Dronamics.
Tech Funding News reported on Dronamics back in November 2022 when the EIC awarded the company a €2.5 million grant. In February 2023, they raised $40 million in a pre-Series A round from Founders Factory, Speedinvest, Eleven Capital and the Strategic Development Fund.
We reported a retail round via SeedBlink in July, when we described Dronamics as London-based. The EIC added another €10 million in equity investment in March 2024 and committed up to €30 million from its STEP scale-up programme in June 2025. Asia Air Survey took an undisclosed stake in April 2026.
Dronamics hasn’t disclosed a total funding figure in its announcement. The company is estimated to have raised between $78 million and $93 million.
The SPAC numbers: $99.4 million in trust, $100 million as the goal
The deal is expected to deliver Dronamics circa $100 million in net cash at closing, after expenses. That would come from the PIPE, with the balance coming from GPAT’s trust account post-redemptions. The deal includes a guarantee of at least $25 million in net cash.
GPAT has significantly less cash on hand than its IPO size would imply. It raised $287.5 million in May 2024. At the May 12 vote, holders redeemed about $215.4 million in shares (19,776,272 shares), leaving about $97.8 million in the trust, per the October 26 proxy statement.
The trust had $99.4 million at that point. That’s pretty much the full target on paper, but the target is post-deal costs, and GPAT cautions that redemptions could leave only a very small amount in the trust.
Dronamics and GPAT are still in discussions with institutional and strategic investors, and GPAT will disclose any binding commitments in its SEC filings. GPAT’s co-sponsors and several Dronamics investors have established convertible loans, some of which are already funded.
The company expects the deal to close in H1 2027, possibly after 8th May.
A cargo airline with defence ambitions, and a lot of paper
Dronamics plans to operate its own aircraft and provide middle-mile cargo services from under-utilised regional airfields. The Black Swan, a fixed-wing NATO Class III UAS, can carry 350kg over a range of 2500km, according to the company.
Dronamics is Europe’s first licensed cargo drone airline, with codes from both major international aviation bodies. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has a binding agreement in place as a key partner and aims to provide 30% of Dronamics’ global cargo capacity,
Defense investors are throwing significantly more money at other companies. Quantum Systems raised $1.2 billion at an $8 billion valuation in July, and Tekever raised $580m at $6.4bn in September. Stark raised €500 million at a €3.5 billion valuation in June. Destinus was reported in May to be seeking €200 million at a valuation in excess of €5 billion.
Dealroom expects European defence startups to raise a record $10.5 billion this year, with $7.4 billion already raised by 20th September, plus further rounds such as Hypersonics’ €100 million in November.
Europe’s SPAC comeback is sending mixed messages. Pasqal, the quantum start-up which we reported on at its $2 billion SPAC launch, commenced trading on the Nasdaq on 28 August. Einride has also gone public, reducing its headline valuation from $1.8 billion to $1.35 billion.
Dronamics is after both the money and the credibility from this deal. The real question is whether the public markets will support a defence platform before it has any binding customer contracts.
