DroneUp
About
About DroneUp
DroneUp’s current technology focus is ATOMx, an orchestration layer for low-altitude autonomous operations. It combines aircraft and operator information with airspace restrictions, approvals, position data and mission status to provide shared awareness across multiple flights.
The platform supports deconfliction, compliance and coordinated operation rather than controlling one proprietary drone. Authorities, fleet operators and infrastructure providers can use it to manage increasingly automated activity across a region, drawing on DroneUp’s experience conducting commercial and government UAS operations.
Supply
Supply chain relationships
- Elsight Ltd.
Inbound - Connectivity - Elsight received and delivered DroneUp's Halo hardware order with monthly cloud and SIM services
Source
Funding
- 2021-06-17 - Strategic investment - Walmart invests in DroneUp after delivery trials
Walmart made a strategic investment in DroneUp after trial drone deliveries from Walmart stores. - source: corporate.walmart.com
Investors
- Walmart - Lead - Unknown - 1 funding event - first seen 2021-06-17
Team
- Tom Walker - Founder and CEO - Leads DroneUp across UAS operator services, airspace sovereignty products and low-altitude autonomy operations.
- John Vernon - Co-Founder and CTO - Leads technical work behind DroneUp platforms for secure flight authorization, dynamic restrictions and Remote ID.
Timeline
Events
- 2026-10-05 - Award - ANRA and other UAS developers receive FAA research awards under $12 million programme
ANRA’s four listed projects cover air-taxi integration, common altitude references, airport traffic-system integration and AI drone classification. Other work includes ground and airborne detect-and-avoid, satellite communications, drone identity, passive radar and mission coordination. Recipients will work with FAA-designated UAS Test Sites through the UAS Broad Agency Announcement programme.
Source - 2022-05-24 - Deployment - Walmart and DroneUp expand drone delivery to 34 sites
The 34-site network was designed to reach up to 4 million U.S. households across six states. Walmart projected capacity for more than 1 million drone-delivered packages per year.
Source - 2022-01-13 - Commercial Order - Elsight delivers DroneUp Halo communications order
The order's value was approximately 80% of Elsight's revenue in the first half of 2021. The package links aircraft, field hubs and control centres with redundant command-and-control connectivity. DroneUp had begun multisite delivery operations in November 2021 following Walmart's June investment.
Source - 2021-06-17 - Funding - Walmart invests in DroneUp after delivery trials
Walmart made a strategic investment in DroneUp after trial drone deliveries from Walmart stores. The companies had completed at-home COVID-19 test-kit delivery trials before the investment. Walmart linked the investment to building a scalable last-mile drone delivery model.
Source
Notes
Profile notes
- DroneUp’s Walmart rollout contracted before the retailer ended the partnership
reviewed 2026-07-18 - DroneUp and Walmart expanded store-based drone delivery across several US markets, but DroneUp closed 18 Walmart hubs in 2024 because the smaller operations were not sustainable. Walmart later ended its DroneUp contract and ceased being an investor.
Source
Context
Comparable profiles
- Avision
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- Thales
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- AirMatrix
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- Airwayz
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- SkyGrid
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- Airspace Link
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- Aerion
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- SkySafe
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- Altitude Angel
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- ANRA Technologies
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- High Lander
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
- Seoul Robotics
stack adjacency - Drone Airspace Infrastructure
Shared workflows
- Avion
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- AirData UAV
workflow adjacency - Commercial Drone Operations · Enterprise Drone Operations
- Autel Robotics
workflow adjacency - Commercial Drone Operations · Enterprise Drone Operations
- Unifly
workflow adjacency - Commercial Drone Operations · Enterprise Drone Operations
- Zeitview
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies · Commercial Drone Operations
- UVify
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies · Commercial Drone Operations
- Drone Harmony
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies · Commercial Drone Operations
- Aquiline Drones
workflow adjacency - Enterprise Drone Operations
- AirHub
workflow adjacency - Enterprise Drone Operations
- DJI
workflow adjacency - Commercial Drone Operations
- Tornyol
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
- Voltair
workflow adjacency - Autonomous Drone Companies
Context tags
- Autonomous drone systems participation - Workflow - Profile source supports this robotics context.
- Commercial drone operations - Workflow - DroneUp's robotics products or services are relevant to commercial drone operations workflows.
- Drone delivery operator - Peer Group - Profile source supports this robotics context.
- Enterprise drone operations - Workflow - DroneUp's robotics products or services are relevant to enterprise drone operations workflows.
- Drone airspace infrastructure - Stack Layer - DroneUp's robotics role maps to the drone airspace infrastructure stack layer.
Commercial
- Elsight delivers DroneUp Halo communications order
2022-01-13 · Order / contract · Elsight received and delivered a commercial order for Halo hardware with monthly cloud and SIM services for DroneUp's drone-delivery programme.
Source