ABZ Innovation Raises €7M as European Ag Drone Maker Bets on Post-DJI Ban Opportunity

The day after Drone Nerds added Hungarian-made agricultural drones to its US product lineup, the manufacturer behind them announced a €7 million funding round. The timing is not coincidental.

ABZ Innovation, a Budapest-based heavy-duty agricultural drone manufacturer, closed the round led by Vsquared Ventures, with participation from Hungarian fund Day One Capital and US-based Assembly Ventures. The company will use the capital to scale production, accelerate R&D, and expand its global distributor network.

For American farmers watching the regulatory environment shift against Chinese drone manufacturers, ABZ is betting this investment positions them as a credible alternative. Whether they can actually deliver at scale and at prices farmers will accept remains unproven.

ABZ targets the gap created by DJI restrictions

ABZ Innovation manufactures heavy-duty drones for agricultural spraying, spreading, and industrial cleaning applications. The company designs and assembles its hardware in Hungary, pairing what it calls a “full-stack European autonomy platform” for flight control and data processing with components it describes as European-sourced.

The company’s L10 V2 (10-liter tank) and L30 V2 (30-liter tank) agricultural sprayers compete directly with DJI’s Agras line. ABZ claims its systems reduce water usage by up to 80% and pesticide application by up to 50% compared to conventional spraying methods, using controlled droplet application technology with rotary atomization.

That pitch gained urgency after the FCC’s December 23 decision to add DJI to its Covered List. The ban affects new FCC equipment authorizations, which means future DJI models cannot legally enter the US market. Existing authorized equipment like the Agras T40 and T50 can still be sold from dealer inventory and serviced through third parties. The immediate crisis is for operators planning future purchases, not those flying current equipment.

Still, the long-term trajectory is clear. A Michigan State University study documented agricultural drones transforming farming faster than almost any technology in history, with FAA registrations jumping from roughly 1,000 in January 2024 to around 5,500 by mid-2025. That growth will require equipment. If DJI cannot supply new models, someone else will.

Drone Nerds partnership positions ABZ for US sales

On January 21, XTI Aerospace’s Drone Nerds subsidiary announced it had added the ABZ Innovation L10 V2 to its enterprise agriculture product line. The announcement came one day before ABZ revealed its funding round.

“The L10 V2 reflects ABZ Innovation’s focus on delivering efficient and precise agricultural technology to the U.S. market through our partnership with Drone Nerds,” said Károly Ludvigh, CEO of ABZ Innovation. “Developed and manufactured in Europe, the ABZ Innovation L10 V2 is designed to support targeted applications, advanced precision workflows, and responsible resource use for modern agricultural operations.”

The L10 V2 targets smaller operations and specialty crops, including orchards, vineyards, and high-value fields up to 124 acres. The platform uses optional RTK positioning via EMLID over LoRa for centimeter-level accuracy and supports modular payloads beyond spraying, including Trichogramma beneficial insect dispensers, granule spreaders, and seeding systems.

Drone Nerds specifically emphasized the L10 V2’s European manufacturing and CE/ISO certification as relevant for customers operating under defined sourcing, procurement, or data-handling requirements. That language reads as a direct pitch to operators who need to demonstrate compliance with country-of-origin policies that exclude Chinese equipment.

The “European-made” claim deserves scrutiny

ABZ and its investors emphasize European manufacturing and “supply chain security” as key differentiators. Vsquared’s Thomas Oehl praised the company’s “European autonomy stack.” Assembly Ventures cited “supply chain reliability” as a reason for investment.

What neither the company nor its investors specify is the actual origin of critical components. Flight controllers, sensors, motors, and battery cells for virtually all commercial drones trace back to global supply chains with significant Chinese involvement. “European-sourced” can mean components manufactured in Europe, or it can mean components purchased from European distributors who source globally.

This matters for operators facing procurement requirements that specify country-of-origin restrictions. Without detailed component sourcing documentation, “European-made” remains a marketing claim rather than a compliance guarantee. DroneXL has reached out to ABZ for clarification on their supply chain and will update this article if they respond.

European drone investment continues its 2025 surge

ABZ’s €7 million round sits within a broader wave of capital flowing into European drone manufacturers, though the scale difference is notable. German defense drone maker Quantum Systems raised €160 million. French defense drone startup Harmattan AI is seeking a billion-dollar valuation after securing contracts with French and UK military forces. French underwater drone maker Exail’s stock has surged 370% as European defense spending accelerates.

ABZ operates in a different segment than defense-focused manufacturers, and €7 million is modest by comparison. For context, DJI reportedly spent more than $1.5 billion on R&D in 2022 alone. ABZ cannot match that investment or the resulting software polish and economies of scale. The company is betting it can serve a specific market segment that values supply chain transparency over cutting-edge features.

“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,” said Thomas Oehl, General Partner at Vsquared. “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.”

ABZ’s path from Hungarian startup to 25+ countries

ABZ Innovation launched in 2021 as a subsidiary of ABZ Drone, which had provided drone services in Hungary for several years. CEO Károly Ludvigh and his team developed the initial hardware in collaboration with Széchenyi István University in Győr and secured backing from MIB Invest Group.

The company now operates in more than 25 countries through distributors and service partners. Its products are deployed for crop protection in orchards, vineyards, and row crops, as well as industrial applications including building facade cleaning and surface treatment in hazardous environments.

“The CEE region is producing a growing number of top-tier deep tech companies that are becoming leaders on the global stage,” said Csaba Kákosi, Managing Partner at Day One Capital. “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.”

Felix Scheuffelen, Co-Founder at Assembly Ventures, framed the investment in terms of the regulatory environment:

“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.”

DroneXL’s Take

The coordination between ABZ’s funding announcement and the Drone Nerds product launch tells you everything about how this market is moving. European manufacturers have been watching the US regulatory situation for years. Now they’re executing.

But execution requires more than timing. ABZ faces three challenges that investor enthusiasm cannot solve overnight.

First, production capacity. Hungarian manufacturing that served 25 countries will need to scale substantially if American agricultural operators start ordering in volume. The company has not disclosed current production numbers or expansion timelines.

Second, pricing. European manufacturing costs generally struggle to compete with Chinese mass production. American farmers are notoriously price-sensitive. DJI’s Agras T50 runs around $18,000. American-made alternatives from Hylio start at $20,000 and reach $85,000 for advanced systems. ABZ has not published US pricing, and without that data, “cost-competitive” remains an unverified claim.

Third, the supply chain question. If ABZ’s flight controllers and sensors ultimately trace back to Chinese manufacturers, the “European-made” distinction becomes marketing rather than substance. Operators facing strict procurement requirements will need component-level documentation, not country-of-assembly labels.

None of this means ABZ cannot succeed. Ukraine proved that necessity drives innovation when it began developing domestic alternatives to DJI reconnaissance drones. Connecticut’s new agricultural drone law and similar state-level moves are creating demand that someone will fill.

ABZ has operational drones in the field across multiple continents, years of iteration on hardware reliability, and a distribution partner already selling to US enterprise customers. That’s more than most would-be DJI alternatives can claim. Whether it translates to meaningful US market share depends on answers to questions the company has not yet provided.

Expect ABZ to move aggressively on distributor partnerships over the next six months. Watch for pricing announcements and supply chain documentation. Those details will determine whether this is a real alternative or another company riding regulatory tailwinds without the substance to back it up.

Editorial Note: This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI to ensure technical accuracy and archive retrieval. All insights, industry analysis, and perspectives were provided exclusively by Haye Kesteloo and our other DroneXL authors, editors, and YouTube partners to ensure the “Human-First” perspective our readers expect.