With China leading global drone manufacturing, Hungary’s ABZ Innovation raises €7 million to expand heavy-duty drones

ABZ Innovation, a manufacturer of heavy-duty agricultural and industrial drones out of Budapest, today announced it has closed a €7 million funding round in order to scale production, speed up product development, and expand in key global markets – as it challenges Chinese grip on the drone market.

The round was led by Vsquared Ventures, with participation from Day One Capital and Assembly Ventures.

Karoly Ludvigh, CEO of ABZ Innovation, said: “Our mission is simple: we build drones that take people out of dangerous, repetitive work while helping farmers and industrial operators do more with less. This investment lets us scale production, deepen R&D, and equip a growing global network of distributors and service providers with reliable, heavy-duty systems they can turn into revenue-generating services.”

In the wider European drone and aerial robotics funding landscape, ABZ Innovation’s round sits alongside several notable investments in adjacent segments of the market.

In Switzerland, Voliro raised €19.8 million to accelerate the deployment of its autonomous aerial inspection drones for industrial maintenance and safety use cases. Spain’s Fuvex secured €1.7 million in the first phase of its Series A to expand long-range autonomous drone systems across sectors including agriculture, energy infrastructure inspection and security.

At the larger end of the market, Germany-based Quantum Systems raised €160 million to scale AI-powered aerial intelligence platforms for defence, emergency services and industrial applications.

Together, these rounds represent approximately €181 million of disclosed funding flowing into European drone and aerial systems companies in 2025. Within this context, ABZ Innovation’s raise reflects growing support for mid-scale, hardware-focused European manufacturers aiming to offer domestically built alternatives in a market still largely dominated by Chinese suppliers.

Thomas Oehl, General Partner at Vsquared, adds: “ABZ Innovation stands out by approaching drones not as individual products, but as an end-to-end automation platform for real industrial and agricultural use cases. The incredible team has a clear problem–product–solution mindset, combines robust hardware with a European autonomy stack, and is already proving it can compete globally on performance and cost. That combination is exactly what Europe needs to build: competitive, sovereign drone capabilities at scale.”

Founded in 2021, ABZ Innovation is a manufacturer of heavy-duty agricultural and industrial drones for spraying, spreading, cleaning and other specialised tasks, focused on robust hardware, high payload capacity and long-term partner support. It is used by partners in 25+ countries worldwide.

As Chinese manufacturers dominate the global drone market, ABZ is positioning itself as Europe’s leading challenger in the heavy-duty segment – offering a European-made alternative with supply chain security and data sovereignty.

In the broader European tech funding landscape, several startups have also explicitly framed their capital raises as steps toward reducing reliance on Chinese suppliers or competitors.

For example, CarbonX secured around €4 million to scale its alternative battery carbon materials, positioning its technology as a locally produced alternative to Chinese-dominated graphite supply chains and aligning with broader EU strategic material policy.

Beyond battery materials and drones, the EU’s strategic efforts – such as the Choose Europe to Start and Scale initiative – underscore a regional push to close gaps with global tech leaders including China, with new public-private funding vehicles aimed at enabling European scale-ups to compete on a global stage.

Csaba Kákosi, Managing Partner at Day One Capital, shares: “The CEE region is producing a growing number of top-tier DeepTech companies that are becoming leaders on the global​ stage. Day One Capital is committed to backing founders and companies of this caliber. ABZ Innovation is a perfect example, and we are delighted to welcome them to our portfolio.”

The company’s main selling point is that it pairs cost-competitive hardware with a full-stack European autonomy platform to turn drones into practical automation tools.

Use cases:

• In agriculture, spraying and spreading drones enable more precise application of crop protection products and fertilisers – helping reduce chemical and water use and addressing labour shortages in orchards and other high-value crops.
• In industry, ABZ’s cleaning drones remove people from hazardous environments such as work at height or on contaminated surfaces, improving safety and reducing downtime.

Felix Scheuffelen, co-founder at Assembly Ventures, says: “We’re excited to partner with the ABZ Innovation team. As incumbent leaders face mounting restrictions, the opportunity for a new category-defining company in aerial drones is wide open. ABZ’s commitment to hardware performance, data security, and supply chain reliability positions them to lead across European and US markets. This investment reflects Assembly’s focus on backing exceptional companies at key inflection points.”

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