Orqa signs CA$150 million Canada drone production deal with RRS

Orqa has signed a five-year CA$150 million exclusive production deal with Remote Robotic Systems that will move more of the Croatian FPV maker’s hardware into Canada and push it deeper into the drone, AI and counter-UAS market. The agreement was signed in Toronto on June 25, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković present.

The deal is built around expanding production of Orqa systems and components in Canada for domestic and export markets. The partners are targeting an initial C$20 million investment to expand RRS production facilities, and the project is expected to create up to 100 new high-value technology jobs in Ottawa and Toronto by the end of 2027. For FPV racing, the important detail is not just the headline value. It is the manufacturing footprint: more production capacity can change how quickly high-performance gear, parts and subsystems reach pilots, and how much room Orqa has to iterate on low-latency hardware that matters in racing and freestyle.

Orqa’s racing roots are central to why the contract is drawing attention. The company was founded in 2018 in Osijek by Srdjan Kovacevic, Ivan Jelušić and Vlatko Matijevic, and says it now has more than 150 employees spanning software, electronics, RF, mechanical and optical engineering, as well as assembly and sales. Orqa also says it builds FPV gear with full vertical integration rather than assembling third-party parts, a model that can support tighter control over quality, weight and reliability, all critical variables for race pilots chasing consistency at the limit.

That same engineering base has already been pointed toward larger-scale production. Orqa raised €5.8 million in seed funding in December 2024 and another €12.7 million in Series A funding in March 2026, both steps that helped finance a broader manufacturing push. In March, the company said it could produce up to 280,000 fully NDAA-compliant drones a year at its Croatian headquarters and wants to scale toward 1 million units annually through its manufacturing partnership program. It also markets FPV SkyDive as a simulator gateway into drone racing and freestyle, a reminder that its consumer identity still runs through the racing scene.

The Canadian deal could strengthen that pipeline if larger-scale manufacturing lowers costs, steadies component supply and gives Orqa more room to invest in goggles, radios and other pilot gear. But the same defense pull that opens new factories can also redirect engineering talent toward security requirements, AI integration and counter-UAS work. For FPV, the next test is whether this money widens the path for race-ready hardware, or whether the fastest innovation gets pulled into government-grade production first.