Motorola leads $125M round for Brinc, fueling 911 drone expansion amid U.S. import crackdown

Brinc Drones, the Seattle-based maker of 911 response drones, has raised $125 million in a new funding round led by Motorola Solutions, boosting its ambitions to put a drone on the roof of every police and fire station in America.

The company says it will use the money to expand manufacturing capacity, bring new products to market, and grow its workforce. Later this year, Brinc is set to move into a new headquarters and factory in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood — a former fish cannery on the Lake Washington Ship Canal — with three times the production space of its current factory.

The investment and expansion come as new federal restrictions squeeze Chinese-made drones out of the U.S. market, giving domestic manufacturers a new opening.

Brinc’s drones and devices are used by police, fire, and other emergency responders to reach 911 calls before officers arrive, deliver medical supplies, and assist in hostage negotiations. Founded in 2019 by CEO Blake Resnick, now 26, Brinc moved from Las Vegas to Seattle in 2021.

Existing investors Index Ventures and Figma founder Dylan Field also participated in the latest round, the company said. Motorola Solutions became a Brinc investor in April 2025 as part of a $75 million round that formed a strategic alliance between the two companies.

Brinc didn’t disclose a specific valuation associated with the round but said it nearly doubled from $480 million a year ago, which means it hasn’t quite reached billion-dollar unicorn status. The new capital brings Brinc’s total funding to more than $280 million.

Other investors who’ve backed the company include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, former LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, former acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, and former FCC chairman Julius Genachowski.

The company has grown to 187 employees, up from 108 a year ago, and is actively hiring for 41 more. It expects to top 250 employees by the time the new factory opens.

All of its drones are built in the U.S., which is a growing selling point as federal regulators tighten restrictions on Chinese-made drones. The FCC in December 2025 blocked foreign-made drones from receiving U.S. equipment authorization, effectively barring new models — most notably from Chinese giant DJI — from the American market.

Some exemptions have since been granted for certain non-Chinese drones, and DJI is challenging the ruling in court, but Brinc says the shift has prompted more public safety agencies to look at American-made drones like its own.

Brinc’s drones integrate with Motorola’s public safety radios, 911 call systems, and dispatch software. An officer can launch a Brinc drone by pressing a button on a Motorola radio, or have one dispatched automatically when a 911 call comes in.

The company’s drone lineup includes the Lemur 2 for indoor use, the Responder 911 response drone, and Guardian, a larger Starlink-connected drone unveiled in March that the company says is built to replace police helicopters.

The company said it more than tripled revenue in 2025 and has signed nearly four times as many 911 response drone contracts so far this year as it did in the same period of 2025. Newer customers include the Los Angeles Fire Department and St. Louis Police Department.

More than 900 public safety agencies now use Brinc’s products, according to the company, including more than 20% of U.S. SWAT teams. That’s a fraction of the roughly 80,000 police and fire stations across the country that Brinc is targeting.