Cargo drone maker Dronamics to list on Nasdaq through a US$400 million merger with GP-Act III

Dronamics, the cargo drone developer based in Sofia, Bulgaria, has signed an agreement to go public through a merger with GP-Act III Acquisition Corp., a listed shell company that trades on Nasdaq as GPAT. The agreement was signed on 3 November 2026 and announced in New York on 4 November. The combined company is expected to list on Nasdaq once the deal closes, which both sides expect in the first half of 2027.

The numbers

• Dronamics is valued at US$400 million before new money, on a fully diluted basis
• The combined company has an implied enterprise value of about US$500 million
• Dronamics aims to receive about US$100 million in net cash at closing, from a private placement and the cash left in the GPAT trust account after redemptions
• The deal needs at least US$25 million of net cash to close
• Existing Dronamics shareholders roll all of their shares into the new company

GPAT's sponsors and some current Dronamics investors have also agreed to convertible loans, part of which is already funded. The deal still needs approval from GPAT shareholders and regulators.

What the money is for

Dronamics says it will use the proceeds to build more of its Black Swan aircraft, grow its commercial operations and start flying in the United States. The Black Swan is a long-range, fixed-wing unmanned aircraft in the NATO Class III group. Dronamics plans to operate it itself and sell middle-mile cargo capacity from regional airfields. On the defence side, it pitches the same airframe for military resupply, surveillance, airborne early warning and as a mothership for counter-drone work.

The company also has a smaller aircraft, the Black Cygnet, a NATO Class I drone for civil protection.

Dronamics was founded in 2014 and calls itself Europe's first licensed cargo drone airline. It holds IATA and ICAO airline codes. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has a binding agreement to take at least 30 percent of its global cargo capacity, and Dronamics says partners have signed letters of intent and term sheets for more than 730 Black Swan aircraft. HENSOLDT is working with the company on an unmanned airborne early warning platform.

Svilen Rangelov, co-founder and president of Dronamics, called the signing "an important milestone for Dronamics as we prepare for the next stage of our growth."

On The Flying Engineer

Dronamics has a page in our directory: Dronamics. Its defence partner is listed too: HENSOLDT. The next drone events on our calendar are the EU Drone Summit in Brussels on 9 November and XPONENTIAL Europe 2027 in Düsseldorf in March. See also our drone companies page and cargo companies page.

Source: Dronamics newsroom