©ZenaTech
The drone surveying market is entering a rapid growth phase, with demand rising across infrastructure, energy, and land management sectors. Drones have truly revolutionized the land survey and mapping industry in the past decade, turning what was once a painstaking, ground-based process into a rapid, aerial endeavor. With the ability to fly over rugged terrain and capture high-resolution imagery and LiDAR data, drones can generate point clouds, orthomosaics, and terrain models in hours rather than weeks.
That shift is reshaping the economics and expectations of surveying. According to a recent market analysis from Fact.MR, a global market research and consulting firm, the drone surveying market is poised to grow from an estimated $1.97 billion in 2025 to $11.49 billion by 2035, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of about 19.3 percent. The rise of drone-enabled mapping is now widely viewed as a major inflection in the surveying profession, unlocking new efficiencies, margins, and business models.
One of the more ambitious players in this space is ZenaTech, an AI Drone as a Service (DaaS) company that is currently trying to expand its hold on the drone surveying market. The company was originally incorporated in Illinois in 2017 under the name ZenaPay by Dr. Shaun A. Passley, who currently serves as the company’s chairman and CEO. In 2018, the company moved its base of operations to Canada and rebranded under the name ZenaTech, Inc.
Building software and AI layers atop drone hardware and acquiring local survey and inspection firms to anchor its geographic presence, ZenaTech is pursuing a strategy that combines legacy surveying competencies with drone platforms to offer clients a more integrated, scalable solution. As the company describes it, the DaaS model provides businesses and government customers with flexible, on-demand access to drone-based services while removing the complexity of owning hardware, pilots, maintenance, and regulatory compliance.
“This proposed acquisition will mark our Colorado debut, a state with a challenging surveying landscape from rugged mountains to vast ranch lands, mineral rights law complexity, and significant demand for infrastructure development and land management,” said Dr. Passley. “By combining traditional survey workflows with our AI drone technology, we can now reach areas that were once considered too difficult and capture data faster while providing our clients with an unprecedented level of accuracy.”
In its latest move, ZenaTech has signed an offer to acquire a long-established land surveying firm in Colorado, marking its formal entry into the Central West U.S. region. The company said the acquisition will allow it to build a platform that both modernizes surveying processes and extends into other drone-based services, such as utilities inspection and precision agriculture, providing new recurring revenue streams in a fast-growing market.
Colorado Expansion Strengthens ZenaTech’s Position in the Drone Surveying Market
This Colorado expansion fits within the company’s broader strategy. ZenaTech has already completed ten acquisitions toward a target of establishing 25 DaaS locations by mid-2026. ZenaTech now holds operations throughout the UAE, Taiwan, and Arizona. The company positions each local acquisition as a way to earn recurring survey and inspection work while gradually layering in more advanced drone operations. Over time, the goal is to replace or augment traditional survey workflows with drone systems, thereby reducing cost, speeding delivery, and extending service margins.
The timing of this move is well aligned with market dynamics. The use of drones for surveying and mapping is already fueling a period of consolidation and specialization across the industry. Analysts project that growing adoption of drone technology will reshape traditional surveying methods and open new avenues for innovation and revenue growth. ZenaTech anticipates that by integrating drone platforms, AI analytics, and field expertise, it will be well positioned to outperform both smaller niche operators and traditional surveying firms.
A Future Shaped by the Drone Surveying Market
As drones continue to reshape how land is surveyed and mapped, companies like ZenaTech are demonstrating the potential of combining advanced technology with established industry expertise. The Colorado acquisition reflects a strategic vision for growth that goes beyond geographic expansion, signaling a future in which drone-based services become a central component of surveying, infrastructure planning, and land management across diverse markets.
According to Fact.MR, “The increasing demand for high-precision geospatial intelligence is one of the key drivers of the adoption of drone surveying,” continuing that “the mining, agriculture, oil & gas, and infrastructure sectors increasingly depend on drones to maximize planning, minimize human risk, and digitize high-resolution terrain information with cost-efficient scalability across vast and inaccessible areas.” With investments in AI, software, and scalable service models, ZenaTech is positioning itself to play a leading role in defining the next era of precision mapping and data-driven land management.
© ZenaTech
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