German Client Orders 7,000 Drones for Swarm Show as Shenzhen Firm Eyes IPO

Drone shows are nothing new. What's new is that a Shenzhen company has turned them into a standardized, low-labor, high-repeat-purchase, low-operating-cost swarm system. From a show to a system Previously, staging a drone show with several hundred aircraft typically required more than a dozen staff to place, inspect, and recover each drone one by one, often taking several hours. Now, DJI-like rival Damoda's intelligent vehicle-mounted show system can deploy the entire setup in about 60 seconds. Launching thousands of drones simultaneously is not simply a matter of adding more aircraft. Each drone relies on a flight control system to stay stable, while large-scale swarm flight also involves positioning and navigation, communication synchronization, route planning, and unified scheduling, requiring control of each drone's flight path and spacing within constantly changing formations. In the early days, drones had to be placed manually at designated positions one by one, then launched together after inspection. As swarm sizes grew from hundreds to thousands or even tens of thousands, the workload of ground deployment increased accordingly. In 2022, Shenzhen drone company Damoda launched a box-type takeoff and landing system, attempting to change this process: drones no longer needed to be placed manually one by one and could take off and land directly from the box. Afterward, Damoda introduced automatic charging, high-precision autonomous return-to-base, and other features into its next-generation products, and launched an intelligent vehicle-mounted system to further reduce on-site manual operations. From airborne swarm control to automated ground deployment and recovery, Damoda has gradually integrated these technologies into a repeatable, deliverable drone swarm system. The focus of its technological iteration has also shifted from expanding flight scale to improving system automation and operational efficiency. This shift is particularly commercially valuable in overseas markets. For overseas clients with high labor costs, whether equipment can be deployed quickly and require fewer personnel directly affects project operating costs. Recently, Damoda disclosed at a media briefing that system equipment sales currently account for about 70% of the company's revenue. Its overseas business has covered more than 50 countries and regions, and from 2020 to 2025, overseas performance grew to about 45 times its starting level. The company has also begun exploring extending these capabilities to new scenarios such as low-altitude embodied intelligence. From technological iteration to equipment going overseas Damoda's technical accumulation began in 2015. At that time, the team started with drone flight control systems, first solving the stable flight problem of individual drones. In 2016, the company entered the drone swarm field, completing the 'Red Star Over China' swarm show with 80 drones in Yudu, Jiangxi. Afterward,