The company behind Eagles drone shows is building a bigger business

Drones have lots of uses, from photography to inspections to agriculture, but few are as eye-catching as light shows, where hundreds move in sync to create shapes, logos and animations in the sky.

These days those digital firework shows look seamless, but getting them up and running wasn’t simple. A decade ago, when Verge Aero was a young Philadelphia startup, even getting a handful of drones to fly in formation was a challenge.

“We started a company just thinking about automation,” cofounder Christopher Franzwa told Technical.ly. “We didn’t have a direction per se.”

What started as using drones to fly banners has evolved into a company powering major drone light shows, including a celebratory display over the Philadelphia Museum of Art during the Eagles’ 2023 playoff run. And as more operators enter the space, Verge Aero is positioning itself less as a producer, and more as infrastructure.

Today, Verge Aero sells a combined hardware-and-software platform used by event companies, fireworks operators and others to design and run their own shows.

Verge Aero traces its roots to around 2015, when Franzwa and a group of engineers began experimenting with drone automation.

Even ambitious goals were modest: at one point, the team saw getting roughly 20 to 25 drones airborne at once as a major milestone.

Then came a wake-up call.

As the company was building its early systems, chipmaker Intel began demonstrating large-scale drone swarms, including a performance during the 2018 Olympics with around 100 synchronized drones — far beyond what the Verge Aero team had achieved.

“We were like, ‘Oh crap,’” Franzwa said. “We weren’t even remotely close to that.”

At the same time, Franzwa said, more companies began entering the space, driving down prices for shows that had once commanded premium rates. For a small, underfunded team, competing directly became increasingly difficult.

That’s when the company reframed the problem. “We were like, ‘Hey, let’s make it so that anybody can do this,’” Franzwa said.

A full-stack platform for drone show producers

That shift now defines the business. Verge Aero offers a full-stack system that includes both drones and design software, allowing customers to create and run shows without building their own infrastructure.

“The software is the driver,” Franzwa said.

The platform lets users design and simulate shows in a visual interface, automatically accounting for constraints like drone spacing, speed and safety limits. Recent updates include AI-assisted tools to speed up design.

A key part of the offering extends beyond technology. Because federal aviation rules restrict a single operator from controlling large drone swarms, running a show often requires Federal Aviation Administration waivers and airspace coordination. Verge Aero helps customers navigate that process, including assisting with waivers and securing permissions for flights in complex environments like cities or near airports.

Its customers are typically operators like event production firms and fireworks companies. In some cases, operators within Verge Aero’s network collaborate, combining fleets to execute larger shows than they could individually.

The company’s growth has not been without challenges.

Early on, Verge Aero faced limited funding, failed partnerships and event disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company initially relied on a private partner that fell through, and for years operated with minimal resources. Support from investors including Ben Franklin Technology Partners helped it continue developing its technology and begin scaling its operations, which Franzwa said has grown to more than 30 employees

A free drone show in West Philadelphia honoring healthcare workers helped generate attention at a critical moment in 2020.

That momentum later reached a national audience when Verge Aero appeared on NBC’s America’s Got Talent: Extreme, where its performance earned a coveted Golden Buzzer.

New pressures are emerging for the drone industry.

Trade tariffs and policy changes affecting foreign-made drone components, from batteries to motors, are also beginning to reshape the industry. Recent federal actions targeting foreign-built drones and communications equipment have made it harder to bring new systems to market in the US, adding pressure to a supply chain that still depends heavily on overseas manufacturing.

For companies like Verge Aero, that creates a tension. Many core components are not widely produced domestically, but relying on foreign parts is becoming more complicated and potentially more expensive.

Verge Aero currently manufactures systems overseas but is exploring ways to build out its own US-based production, as it looks to gain more control over its supply chain and adapt to shifting regulations.

“There’s something to be said about having full control,” Franzwa said, “especially when you’re dealing with all the different components that go into it.”