Powerus is making power plays all over the place.
Yesterday, the Florida-based drone company announced that it’s secured a $30M strategic investment from drone components-maker Unusual Machines, “[strengthening] a working relationship already in place between the two companies.”
Power up: To back things up, Powerus, founded last year, has made headline after headline for a number of reasons. The company is designed as a drone roll-up focused on acquiring Ukrainian and “Ukrainian-inspired” drone companies, with three main companies under their umbrella so far:
- Kaizen Aerospace, which makes heavy-lift aerial drones with payload capacities ranging from 100 lbs to 1,000 lbs. Velicovich told Tectonic that they’re prototyping one with a 2,000 lb capacity.
- Tandem Defense, which makes FPV quadcopters, including one that made the cut for the Drone Dominance Program’s Phase II competition.
- Agile Autonomy, which is focused on maritime autonomy and converting pre-existing boats into USVs.
Powerus has also developed a family of interceptors, the Guardian 1 and 2, and has inked a deal with the US Air Force last month to supply them “at scale,” co-founder and president Brett Velicovich told Tectonic at the time.
The (Un)usual Suspects: Unusual Machines, which went public in 2024, has two main business lines:
- Fat Shark, which designs and manufactures ultra-low latency video goggles for drone pilots, motors, and other drone components. UM bought Fat Shark from Red Cat in 2024, concurrent with their IPO.
- Rotor Riot, a drone-focused e-commerce marketplace where they sell the aforementioned components.
The investment isn’t their first rodeo together. Powerus has been an Unusual Machines component customer—including with an over-$5M order for drone motors in April—and “it expects to be a meaningful customer for US-made components of the kind Unusual Machines supplies” going forward, the company said in a statement.
The $30M investment is a bet that they can scale together to help meet the Pentagon’s demand for US-made drones. Rising tide and such.
Family ties: Aside from the existing working relationship and the fact that both companies are based in Florida, they have something else in common—both are backed by some friends in the highest of high places.
Donald Trump Jr. is a major investor in Unusual Machines—the third largest individual shareholder, The Intercept reported last year—and joined as an advisor in November 2024 after becoming a partner at 1789 Capital.
- Coincidentally, Unusual Machines is one of the drone companies the Trump administration is reportedly in talks to fund through the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital, alongside PDW and Neros. Business as (un)usual.
On the Powerus side, the company announced investment from the president’s eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr., in March, along with plans to go public via a merger with Aureus Greenway, a Trump family-backed golf course holding company.
Despite all that, Velicovich is separating the tech from whoever may be sitting on the cap table.
“We’re not building a company that’s obsessed with politics. We’re building a company that lets the technology speak for itself, and in the end, that’s what we want,” Velicovich told Tectonic earlier this month. “We’re building a multi-billion dollar company that will last for decades, which is the reason why so many investors want to be a part of Powerus.”