Shares of Airo Group Holdings Inc. surged 140% in their trading debut Friday, following a $60 million initial public offering. It became the third company this month to more than double on its first day of trading. Airo’s stock, which had jumped as much as 291% earlier in the session, was subject to multiple volatility halts before closing at $24 in New York.
The aerospace and defense technology company had upsized its IPO on Thursday to 6 million shares, pricing them at $10 each—below the initially marketed range of $14 to $16. Based on the outstanding shares listed in its filing, Airo’s valuation stood at roughly $622 million. The bulk of the firm’s revenue comes from its drone-making division. Chirinjeev Kathuria, the company’s executive chairman, co-founder, and largest shareholder, had expressed interest in purchasing up to $5 million worth of shares at the IPO price, according to the filing.
Airo had originally planned to go public in April, but market turbulence—measured by the VIX Index, often called Wall Street’s fear gauge—delayed the deal. However, the index’s more recent decline toward 20, along with strong IPO performances by Circle Internet Group Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc., as well as publicly traded peers like AeroVironment Inc., helped motivate the company to relaunch its offering, Kathuria said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
Thanks to prior investor meetings held in April, the deal was already heavily oversubscribed by late Wednesday, allowing the company to go ahead with a quick, one-day roadshow—despite Thursday night’s Israel-Iran flare-up that rattled global markets.
“With Iran and Israel, we always hope for a peaceful result but that also feeds into the demand because there is a lot more appetite for aerospace and defense investments,” Kathuria said.
At its intraday peak, Airo’s market capitalization briefly touched $1 billion. The debut closely followed a wave of strong IPOs in the sector, including Voyager Technologies Inc., which jumped 82% on its first day after initially more than doubling. Circle also gained 168% in its June 5 debut, underscoring renewed investor appetite for new listings.
Conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have spotlighted drones as cost-effective tools in modern warfare.
“Modern warfare has completely changed because of drone technology,” Kathuria said.
Airo’s IPO came shortly after former President Donald Trump signed executive orders to accelerate U.S. drone production and reduce reliance on Chinese imports. The company now aims to begin manufacturing military drones domestically and obtain certification to sell them to the U.S. Department of Defense within six months, Kathuria said.
Airo’s drones are already active across the European Union and NATO countries, and have been tested and used in Ukraine, the filing shows. Used primarily for reconnaissance and targeting, the drones have proven difficult to shoot down due to their AI-enhanced features.
“Today they don’t have ammunition, but we are equipped and willing to do that if NATO countries and the US ask us,” Kathuria said.
Kathuria noted that Airo intentionally kept the IPO proceeds modest to avoid diluting existing shareholders.
“By going public we are able to access $200 million of financing from the Canadian government and other financing in the debt market,” he said. “There’s a lot of credibility in going public when you are bidding for NATO and US DoD contracts.”
The IPO was managed by Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., BTIG, and Mizuho Securities USA. Airo shares are listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol AIRO.
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