From Gaming to the Battlefield: How XTEND Reached a $1.5B Valuation | Special Interview

In 2016, when brothers Aviv and Matteo Shapira sold Replay Technologies to Intel for $175 million, they were focused on developing innovative technology for sports broadcasting. It is unlikely they imagined that a decade later, they would be behind a company developing advanced drones and robotics for the battlefield, and on the verge of becoming a publicly traded U.S. company valued at $1.5 billion. This Friday, shares of XTEND will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

“At our first company, Replay, we developed telepresence technology—technology that allows a user to feel as if they are somewhere else in real time, using VR headsets and advanced 3D technologies. After we sold it, we wanted to do something similar with drones and robots,” Aviv Shapira, co-founder and CEO of XTEND, tells IsraelDefense.

The Shapira brothers teamed up with Rubi Liani and Adir Tubi, and in 2019 the four founded XTEND as a gaming and user-experience company based on drone technologies.

But the Israeli reality quickly changed the company’s trajectory. When incendiary balloons from Gaza began threatening communities near the border, the founders realized that their technology was much more than a game.

“We discovered that our technology could actually intercept the threats, that we could protect human lives. And we added defense to our portfolio,” Shapira says.

However, nothing prepared them for the company’s most significant turning point: October 7.

“Friends, family, employees – everyone started using our technology. Everyone wanted drones. Israel is a small country, and in the week after October 7, I received hundreds, if not thousands, of urgent requests along the lines of, ‘My uncle / daughter’s husband / friend is in the field and needs a drone,’” Shapira recalls. 

“For us, that became the only focus. Saving lives. Everything else moved aside, and the only mission was to use what we had developed to make the world safer. Our motto today is ‘physical AI for a safer world.’”

It’s not about the drone

XTEND’s core technological principle is to extend the range of human action without exposing the person themselves to danger. The company’s operating system enables an autonomous robotic workforce in dangerous and complex environments, enabling it to carry out missions or provide people with critical information before they enter those environments.

The system connects humans, artificial intelligence, robotic platforms, payloads and third-party applications across the air, land and sea, allowing them to operate together as a single system while maintaining human oversight.

Shapira emphasizes that the technology is not limited to war zones.

“We have the right to protect human lives in all the fields where people risk their lives to protect us: firefighters, rescue workers, guards, security personnel and others.”

Drones have become central to modern warfare, but XTEND argues that the bigger opportunity lies beyond the aircraft itself. 

“Our biggest competitive advantage is that we develop our own software, our own operating system. There are tens of thousands of companies around the world working with drones, but very few like us,” Shapira says. From the beginning, he adds, the company has set out to solve complex robotics challenges that have been tested in some of the world’s major conflict zones.

“We managed to reduce the system’s training time by 95%, and essentially anyone can now operate a drone—from anywhere. A person can be at home in one country and operate a drone or robot in another country.”

XTEND founders, right to left: Matteo Shapira (CXO), Rubi Liani (CTO), Aviv Shapira (CEO), and Adir Tubi (CQ)

The company also operates a marketplace built on an open architecture for drones, robots and autonomous systems.

“It reduces friction in the industry. Instead of a company competing with us, it can simply join us and integrate our technologies into its product,” Shapira says.

The marketplace includes AI and computer-vision add-ons, specialized payload controls, third-party applications and more, allowing capabilities from different companies to be connected into a single ecosystem.

The human decides. The machine executes.

At XTEND, autonomy is not about replacing humans, but expanding their ability to act while minimizing their exposure to danger.

“We focus on human decision-making and machine execution. That is important on a practical level, of course, in terms of eliminating physical danger, but also on an ethical level,” Shapira explains. “If a drone or robot needs to carry out a sensitive mission, we don’t want the AI to make that decision. We want the human to decide what should be done, while everything else is autonomous. That is the winning combination.”

According to company figures, more than 12,500 of its systems have been manufactured and deployed in more than 30 countries. Alongside its global operations, the company has also built manufacturing infrastructure in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Israel and Latvia.

Demand for its solutions has also been reflected in recent deals, including a multi-year framework agreement worth up to $15 million with the defense ministry of a NATO member state, agreements with the U.S. Department of Defense, and defense orders totaling more than $12 million.

As part of preparations for its public offering, XTEND merged with U.S. company JFB Construction Holdings, which is building its manufacturing facilities around the world. Among the investors is Eric Trump, son of the U.S. president.

The New York Stock Exchange bell-ringing ceremony will mark the journey the four founders have taken on over the past decade: from technology that allowed a person to feel as if they were somewhere else, to an autonomous system that allows them to actually operate there.

XTEND will take part in UVID DroneTech 2026, the major international UAS and drone event returning to Israel this November for its 14th edition. The event brings together stakeholders from around the world for knowledge sharing and collaboration. For information and registration

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