A few years ago, defence tech was relegated to the shadows of Europe’s startup ecosystem. Now, it’s exploded — and spawned dozens of young upstarts all across the continent, building everything from drones and software to satellites.
A few big startups and geographies, like AI defence unicorn Helsing and drones maker Quantum Systems in Germany, have hogged the media spotlight. But there’s a host of less well-known defence startups across the continent that have been amassing capital.
Sifted mapped the current defence tech startup landscape across Europe, including both big city hotspots and smaller tech hubs. Below are more than 50 defence startups building everywhere from Latvia to Spain.
Sifted broke startups down into subsectors — like strike drones, manufacturing or space (many startups have overlapping categories). We focused on startups that have raised at least €5m, and highlighted some of the lesser-known companies below. Sifted confirmed figures and details with startups where possible.
Strike drones
Origin Robotics
HQ: Riga
Year founded: 2022
The Latvian startup builds autonomous strike drones to attack and intercept targets. It raised a total of over €8m from grants and venture funding, including a €4m round last year from investors including Baltics-based VC Change Ventures.
Origin Robotics told Sifted in January that it is working with the Latvian Ministry of Defence (MoD), having signed a €5m contract with the armed forces, as well as the Drone Capability Coalition, co-led by the UK and Latvia, which aims to send 30,000 drones to Ukraine via £45m worth of contracts.
Cambridge Aerospace
HQ: UK
Year founded: 2024
The secretive British startup was founded in late 2024 and has reportedly raised around $100m. Backers in the startup are reportedly US VC Lux Capital, Accel and Lakestar. The startup is building systems to intercept cruise missiles and drones. Sifted reached out to cofounder Steven Barrett for comment.
Software
Project Q
HQ: Berlin
Year founded: 2024
The German startup is building an interoperable software platform which integrates sensors to create real-time situational awareness for military personnel. Project Q has raised a total of €7.5m from a pre-seed investment from a German family office in 2024 and a recent seed round from VCs including Project A, Poland’s Expeditions Fund and Estonia’s SuperAngel. The startup recently told Sifted it counts the German Bundeswehr (armed forces) as a customer for pilot projects, and has about 20 employees.
Comand AI
HQ: Paris
Year founded: 2023
The French startup is building a software platform that military officers can use to more efficiently plan and strategise operations. The startup has raised €11.5m, including a €8.5m seed round late last year; its backers include Eurazeo, Frst, Expeditions Fund, Kima Ventures and Tiny VC.
The startup’s more than 20 employees hail from the likes of Palantir and OpenAI. The company told Sifted last December it had two pilot contracts — one with France and one with Germany — and had executed one contract with the French army. The company says it has finished its pilot project with the German Armed Forces’ cybersecurity unit.
Arondite
HQ: London
Year founded: 2023
Arondite is building AI tools and software to better connect humans with robotics, unmanned systems and sensors. The startup, which has about 20 employees, has raised a total of $12.5m from VCs including Index Ventures, Concept Ventures and Creator Fund. Arondite founder and CEO Will Blyth, a Palantir alumnus, tells Sifted the startup has “won and are delivering on multiple defence contracts” but declined to name them owing to privacy.
Maritime
Unseenlabs
HQ: Rennes, France
Year founded: 2015
The startup has built a satellite constellation that provides an overview of maritime traffic — detecting and tracking covert ships across the oceans — which can be used for maritime defence. The company has raised €112.5m in total, including a €85m round last year, from investors including Supernova Invest, OMNES, Blue Oceans Partners, S2G Ventures and public bank Bpifrance.
The startup’s tech can track ships by picking up the radio frequency signals they emit even when they’ve turned off other ways to share their location. Unseenlabs tells Sifted the company works with governments “worldwide and particularly in Europe” but declined to provide further details. The company currently has about 120 people.
The startup tells Sifted that next year it will launch its next generation constellation expanding into land and space domains.
Kraken Technology
HQ: London
Year founded: 2021
The British startup builds unmanned surface and subsea vehicles for maritime security. It’s raised £30m in total from investors including the NATO Innovation Fund, Estonian fund SuperAngel and the UK’s National Security Strategic Fund (NSSIF). The startup tells Sifted it is working with “multiple Allied nations including the UK MoD and other NATO allies” but did not provide further details. The startup currently has more than 100 employees.
Maritime Robotics
HQ: Trondheim, Norway
Year founded: 2005
The perhaps little-known Norwegian company has been around for 20 years; it builds advanced maritime drones — unmanned surface vehicles, or USVs — for maritime autonomy. It’s raised a total of $12m, according to PitchBook, from investors including Nysno Climate Investments, EnvisionTech and Leiv Eiriksson Nyskaping.
Land robots
Shark Robotics
HQ: La Rouchelle, France
Year founded: 2016
The French startup designs and builds ground robots for firefighting, security, law enforcement and defence. It’s raised €12m in total, including a €10m Series A in 2023 led by pan-European VC Move Capital. Shark Robotics’ CEO Cyrille Kabbara tells Sifted the company has more than 350 robots deployed in over 25 countries; he says the startup is also working with governments and public agencies including France and Ukraine — including “firefighting robots for the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, deployed for firefighting operation, victim location, evacuation and post-strike hotspot suppression.” The company has 100 employees.
ARX Robotics
HQ: Munich
Year founded: 2021
The German startup builds unmanned ground vehicles that can supply and rescue troops on the front lines as well as deceive the enemy with imitation gunshot noises and other distractions in training. ARX is backed by VCs including the NATO Innovation Fund, Project A, Omnes Capital and HV Capital; it most recently raised €31m in Series A funding this spring.
Back in January, cofounder Marc Wietfeld told Sifted the company collaborates with Germany, the UK, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Ukraine and Lithuania for test series, projects, contracts and participation in programmes of record, but declined to provide specifics.
Space and satellites
Blackshark.ai
HQ: Graz, Austria
Year founded: 2020
Austrian startup Blackshark.ai provides a real-time 3D digital twin of the earth using satellite and aerial imagery processed by AI, which can be used by governments. It’s raised $35m in total funding from investors including Point72 Ventures, US-based nonprofit investor In-Q-Tel and Safran. Cofounder and CEO Michael Putz tells Sifted the company currently works with primes that supply to the governments of the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Singapore. The startup has 70 employees.
Iceye
HQ: Espoo, Finland
Year founded: 2014
The Finnish startup deploys radar satellites to collect real-time, 24/7 images of Earth’s surface regardless of weather conditions. It uses a technology called synthetic aperture radar to gather data by transmitting and receiving microwaves, which can be used for things like national defence. Iceye has raised nearly $800m in debt and equity funding, per PitchBook, from backers including the Finnish sovereign wealth fund Solidium Oy, Move Capital and OTB Ventures. The startup recently struck a joint venture with German defence prime Rheinmetall.
Fossa Systems
HQ: Madrid
Year founded: 2020
The startup provides satellite connectivity to remote and inaccessible areas via nanosatellites for areas like national defence as well as logistics or energy. Fossa Systems most recently raised a €6.3m Series A in 2024 and is backed by investors including Indico Capital Partners, Nabtesco Technology Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Sabadell Venture Capital and NewMind Venture; as of December, the startup was working on raising its Series B.
Materials
iComat
HQ: Gloucester, England
Year founded: 2019
The company designs and makes ultra-lightweight carbon fibre composite structures for defence and aerospace. It’s raised about $25m so far from VCs including 8VC and the NATO Innovation Fund. CEO Evangelos Zympeloudis tells Sifted the company usually supplies its tech to manufacturers across defence and aerospace and doesn’t have direct contracts with the government; iComat has “contracts across Europe (OEMs [original equipment manufacturer] in Spain, Germany, UK, Italy and soon to be Greece) and also with OEMs in the US,” he says. The company’s headcount is currently 80.
FibreCoat
HQ: Aachen, Germany
Year founded: 2020
The German startup develops and produces low-cost fibre-based materials for uses in defence as well as the space and automotive industries. The company most recently raised a €20m Series B in late 2024 and is backed by investors like NewSpace Capital, 212 and Convergent Ventures.
Communications
Wayren
HQ: Tallinn
Year founded: 2020
The startup is building a resilience communication platform to enable teams to operate in difficult circumstances such as on battlefields, underground and remote areas. Wayren has raised about €1.2m in funding, €1.5m in non-diluting funding and €7.9m via a strategic investment deal; its backers include BSV Ventures. Cofounder and CEO Henry Härm tells Sifted the company has a contract in Estonia for an indirect fire digitalization pilot project and “several more that we are working on in NATO allied countries,” but did not provide further specifics. Wayren currently has 17 employees.
All.Space
HQ: Reading, UK
Year founded: 2013
The company makes terminals to communicate with satellites in orbit to help with battlefield communications on the land, sea and air. All.Space most recently raised $44m in late 2024 and is backed by the likes of AE Ventures, Seraphim Space and Promus Ventures.
Manufacturing
PhysicsX
HQ: London
Year founded: 2019
The British startup created an AI software platform to quickly design parts for manufacturing projects in industries like defence and aerospace, as well as commercial areas like semiconductors and energy. It’s raised $170m to date from investors including General Catalyst, Atomico, Temasek and NGP Capital.
While the company doesn’t have any government contracts at the moment, CEO and cofounder Jacomo Corbo tells Sifted it is working with engineering primes including in aerospace. It currently has 175 employees. As Sifted recently reported, while the word “defence” wasn’t on the company’s website until after December, it’s now the company’s largest segment in terms of revenue, which is currently below $50m.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/defence-tech-market-map-2025-europe/
