Srdjan Kovacevic, CEO & Co-Founder of Orqa: Building leading drone hardware in Europe

Orqa is a Croatian company that designs and manufactures drones, components and ground stations entirely in Europe, a rare setup in an industry that mostly relies on China. Orqa now builds primarily for defence customers across NATO and the West, and shipped 250,000 products last year, a number it's on track to double in 2026.Srdjan Kovacevic is CEO and Co-Founder of Orqa. He believes most Western militaries aren't ready for drone warfare yet, and that needs to change fast.The Scaling Europe show is presented by Deel. Check them out here: https://get.deel.com/ruynb7o4lfjkSponsors:Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/events/beelieve/london/2026SurrealDB: https://surrealdb.com/Airwallex: https://www.airwallex.com/uk?utm_source=other&utm_medium=partner_referral&utm_campaign=v01_emea_multi_ib_dg_prtmk_mofu_scalingeuropeLovable: https://lovable.dev/Timestamps:0:00 - Introduction0:15 - What Orqa builds1:07 - Why Orqa set out to build Europe's answer to Chinese drone brands2:36 - Why Orqa builds everything in Europe5:03 - Orqa's current production scale6:41 - How the war in Ukraine pulled Orqa into defence8:05 - Why Orqa builds for NATO's future needs, not Ukraine's immediate ones10:19 - Orqa's production numbers: 250,000 products shipped last year13:16 - Orqa's biggest supply chain bottleneck15:40 - Why the AI boom is causing a new chip shortage for Orqa19:10 - Ukraine's drone warfare numbers20:36 - How drone warfare has transformed the battlefield