Red Cat Holdings Posts Record Revenue, Wins Major Defense Drone Orders

Red Cat Holdings pulled off one of the more striking revenue turnarounds in defense drone history last quarter: $26.2 million in Q4 2025 revenue, up 1,985% from the $1.3 million the Salt Lake City company posted in the same period a year earlier. That single quarter accounted for nearly two-thirds of Red Cat's entire 2025 annual haul of $40.7 million, itself a 161% jump from $15.6 million in 2024.

The numbers tell a company in full sprint. Sequential quarterly revenue climbed 172%, driven by accelerating demand for the Black Widow drone platform. To keep pace, Red Cat expanded production capacity by 520% during the year, a manufacturing buildout that CEO Jeff Thompson called a foundation for what comes next.

"2025 was a transformative year for Red Cat as we strengthened our position as a trusted provider of advanced drone solutions for defense and government customers," Thompson said. "We delivered year-over-year revenue growth of 161%, launched our FANG™ FPV platform, and expanded our Army relationship, and received our first order for 100 Black Widows through the NSPA - a major milestone that underscores growing international demand for our products."

That NSPA order represents a new procurement channel for Red Cat, and the company added a second Asia-Pacific military ally as a Black Widow customer during Q4. On the partnership front, Red Cat expanded its existing relationship with AeroVironment and established a new integration arrangement with Redwire to embed the Black Widow and FANG platforms into broader defense mission architectures.

The sprint is expensive. Red Cat posted a full-year net loss of $72.1 million in 2025, wider than the $53.5 million loss in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA came in at negative $51.3 million, operating cash outflow reached $89.1 million, and operating expenses more than doubled to $67.9 million as the company poured money into R&D, sales and marketing, and general administration. The cash position, however, improved dramatically: Red Cat ended 2025 with $167.9 million on hand versus $9.2 million at the close of 2024, a swing largely driven by $234.3 million in net equity issuance and new convertible notes.

At a February 2026 Innovation Day, Thompson pointed to live demonstrations of uncrewed surface vessels operating alongside Black Widow drones as evidence that Red Cat is evolving beyond a single-platform drone maker into what he characterized as a multidomain autonomous defense platform.

"Our focus is clear: scaling production capacity to meet surging demand, advancing our autonomy roadmap, and expanding our customer base both domestically and with allied nations," Thompson said. "We're not just responding to market opportunities - we're defining the future of American-made tactical drone systems."

Whether Red Cat can close the gap between its revenue trajectory and its loss column will be the defining question heading into 2026. The order pipeline is growing. The cost of building to meet it is growing faster.