Drone Nerds Boosts Enterprise LiDAR with Freefly FLUX Series

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. – January 30, 2026 – XTI Aerospace (Nasdaq: XTIA) today announced that its subsidiary, Drone Nerds, is significantly expanding its high-end sensor offerings for enterprise and government customers by adding the Freefly Systems FLUX series of LiDAR payloads. The move equips Drone Nerds to meet the rapidly growing demand for advanced aerial mapping and inspection solutions, solidifying its position as a key technology provider in the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) market.

This partnership introduces a versatile suite of professional-grade LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) payloads to Drone Nerds' portfolio, providing customers with powerful tools for creating highly accurate 3D models of the physical world. The announcement signals a strategic deepening of XTI Aerospace's focus on the lucrative enterprise drone sector following its acquisition of Drone Nerds in late 2025.

A Strategic Push into a High-Growth Market

The decision to integrate the FLUX LiDAR series is a calculated response to a booming market. The global LiDAR drone market, valued at nearly $400 million in 2026, is projected to more than double by 2032, driven by an insatiable demand for precise geospatial data across industries like construction, energy, agriculture, and public safety. This expansion allows Drone Nerds to better serve these sectors, which increasingly rely on LiDAR for tasks that require greater accuracy and efficiency than traditional methods or photogrammetry alone can provide.

"LiDAR remote sensing technology is a critical tool for many enterprises," said Jeremy Schneiderman, CEO of Drone Nerds, in the official announcement. He emphasized that the addition of the Freefly Systems payloads will strengthen his company's role as a trusted partner for deploying complex sensor solutions. "By adding the Freefly Systems FLUX LiDAR series to our payload portfolio, Drone Nerds believes that it will strengthen its role as the partner enterprise customers rely on to select, integrate, and deploy LiDAR solutions that align with their aircraft, workflows, and operational requirements."

This strategic alignment is echoed by Freefly Systems, a company known for its high-performance aerial platforms used in demanding professional environments. "Working with Drone Nerds allows us to make these payloads more accessible to enterprise and public sector customers who value performance, flexibility, and practical integration into existing aerial workflows," stated Matt Isenbarger, CRO at Freefly Systems.

Precision, Compliance, and Range: The FLUX LiDAR Trio

The Freefly Systems FLUX series is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, it comprises three distinct payloads, each engineered for specific mission priorities, giving organizations the flexibility to choose the right tool for the job.

• FLUX H1: This model is optimized for lightweight, high-precision mapping. Its design prioritizes data quality without overburdening the drone, making it ideal for detailed surveys and inspections where flight endurance and accuracy are paramount.

• FLUX O1: Built specifically for regulated and policy-driven environments, the FLUX O1 is compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This feature is critical for government agencies and contractors who are restricted from using hardware with certain foreign-made components.

• FLUX L1: Designed for efficiency over vast areas, the FLUX L1 supports long-range and wide-area mapping. This payload is best suited for large-scale projects, such as forestry management, corridor mapping for utilities, or large-scale topographical surveys, where covering maximum ground in minimal time is the primary goal.

This tailored approach allows Drone Nerds to address a wider spectrum of customer needs, from a construction firm needing precise volumetric calculations on a single site to a federal agency mapping hundreds of miles of critical infrastructure.

Unlocking Regulated Sectors with NDAA Compliance

The inclusion of the NDAA-compliant FLUX O1 is particularly significant. In recent years, U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies—especially in public safety and defense—have been mandated to phase out drone technology with supply chain security risks. This has created a substantial market for compliant hardware. By offering the FLUX O1, Drone Nerds can now directly serve clients in law enforcement, emergency services, critical infrastructure management, and federal land surveying who require vetted, secure technology for sensitive operations.

This compliance opens doors to high-value government contracts and positions Drone Nerds as a go-to supplier for public sector entities upgrading their UAS fleets. It moves beyond a simple product offering and becomes a solution for complex procurement and security requirements that many other distributors cannot meet.

Integrating Advanced Sensing into Modern Drone Fleets

A key advantage of the FLUX series is its integration flexibility. The payloads are compatible not only with Freefly's own professional-grade drones like the Astro and Alta X via the Smart Dovetail system but also with the widely used DJI Skyport ecosystem. This cross-platform compatibility is a major benefit for enterprises that operate mixed fleets of aircraft.

An organization that has already invested in DJI's enterprise drones, such as the Matrice series, can now add advanced LiDAR capabilities without having to purchase an entirely new aerial platform. This lowers the barrier to entry for adopting high-end sensing technology and allows companies to leverage their existing hardware investments. However, the adoption of such powerful technology is not without its challenges. The massive point cloud datasets generated by LiDAR require significant computational power for processing and specialized software for analysis. Furthermore, operators and data analysts need proper training to extract actionable intelligence from the raw data. Drone Nerds, through its enterprise solutions team and its proprietary Always Flying™ program, is positioned to provide the necessary support and training to help customers overcome these hurdles, ensuring they can successfully integrate these advanced payloads into their operational workflows. This end-to-end support, from selection to deployment and data analysis, is what transforms a simple hardware sale into a comprehensive industrial solution.