The use of AI in defence tech is redefining the modern battlefield, whether on land, sea or air. These are some of the startups attracting attention.
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AI is already everywhere on the battlefield. It is used to automate drones, assist with targeting, power sensors and to analyse data. Its development – driven by both large companies and startups – is not likely to slow down.
“I don’t see an alternative view, really. The future of war, it will be thoroughly automated,” says Andriy Dovbenko, head of the startup support programme UK-Ukraine TechExchange.
Although the use of AI in technology such as automated weapons systems is controversial, it is something that companies and investors are becoming more open to. In a sign of shifting sentiment, Google updated its principles on the use of AI in February, removing its prohibition on developing it for weapons systems.
Marc Lange, a defence tech consultant and investor with advisory firm 2 Ventures, says that while drones usually get the most attention in discussions on defence tech, they are “not even the biggest field where AI makes a difference.”
He says the most important use of AI is in the Ukrainian military’s battlefield management system, Delta, which is based off data from multiple sources. These include military sources such as video feeds from drones, ground sensors and intelligence shared by allies. But it also comes from more creative places, like Russian social media posts or texts from civilians about conditions on the ground.
“It’s quite a different war to what we’ve ever seen,” says Lange. “All of this data somehow needs to be put together into a single picture that can help commanders and operators make the right decisions.”
Nato has taken steps to get itself up to speed. Last month, the alliance announced it had bought an AI-powered military system from US tech firm Palantir. The Maven Smart System is an example of a data fusion system. It analyses data from multiple sources and uses generative AI to assist with combat operations.
And as European militaries continue to scramble to keep up with the latest innovations in defence tech, VCs, venture builders and accelerator programmes are helping a new generation of startups to scale.
Many of the most impactful could be those that find new uses for AI. Here is how 14 defence tech startups are using or assisting the development of the technology.
Swarmer
Ukraine
Founded: 2023
Famously, drones have become indispensable to the war effort in Ukraine. But even though they can be decisive on the battlefield and are now being manufactured in their millions, drone use has usually been limited to the number of operators available.
But what if one soldier could control several drones at once? Swarmer, a Ukrainian startup, has made AI-powered software that allows a single operator to coordinate a fleet, even in jammed environments. This can be used to perform swarms – where several drones attack a target at once.
It was founded in 2023 by Alex Fink and Serhii Kupriienko, who was head of research for a Ukrainian security tech startup, Ring, which was acquired by Amazon for $1bn in 2018. Last year, Swarmer received a grant from the Ukrainian government’s defence tech cluster Brave1, and $2.7m in venture investment from Radius Capital, Green Flag Ventures, D3 and R-G.AI.
Darkhive
US
Founded: 2021
Darkhive is a US company making drones designed for reconnaissance, rather than attack.
Its products include Obelisk, an autonomous reconnaissance drone with a 45-minute flight time. It is designed so that it can be folded into a compact cuboid and carried around, so a user on the move can deploy it when they need more awareness of their surroundings. Its AI-powered software means it can navigate without GPS and can detect objects.
The startup’s most recent raise was a $21m series A funding round in September, led by VC firm Ten Eleven Ventures. US defence prime RTX also invested through its CVC unit RTX Ventures. Darkhive has also received a $1m contract from the US Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, an office tasked with following strategic developments in defence.
Griselda
Ukraine
Founded: 2024
On the modern battlefield, effective data analysis can be the key to keeping the upper hand. Griselda is one of the companies driving forward Ukraine’s sophisticated use of data, with a system it says is “built for clarity in chaos”.
It is AI that makes this possible. Griselda’s platform takes in a huge volume of data from a variety of sources. It could be coming from traditional human intelligence reports, intercepted signals or from open sources like social media posts. Griselda’s system pools this together and processes it to provide actionable battlefield intelligence.
The company received $600,000 in investment funding from Double Tap Investments last year, along with $250,000 in grant funding.
Vatn Systems
US
Founded: 2023
Instead of trying to enter crowded airspace, Vatn Systems are coming at the drone market from below.
The startup is developing autonomous underwater drones that can operate in environments where GPS access, visibility and remote control is made impossible. It is also trying to establish itself at the forefront of underwater swarming technology, where multiple drones can position themselves and launch at attack by communicating with each other.
Vatn has raised $13m in seed funding from investors that include some of the US’s largest defence contractors. The round was led by VC firm DYNE Capital, with participation from the CVC units of Lockheed Martin and RTX, as well as In-Q-Tel.
The Fourth Law
Ukraine
Founded: 2023
In an environment where attacks from unmanned vehicles are widespread, it is not surprising that electronic warfare (EW) techniques have become ubiquitous. EW is used to disrupt access to the electromagnetic spectrum, for example by jamming radio signals. It can render drones unnavigable, GPS ineffective and communication impossible.
The Fourth Law is one of many Ukrainian drone technology startups trying to find a way around this. It has created an AI guidance system that automates the last few hundred metres of an aerial drone’s flight. This can improve accuracy and control over a human operator, but can also take over when the signal is jammed and communication with the drone is lost. It can be installed on most of the common first-person view (FPV) drone models and currently allows for automated tracking of targets. Eventually, the company intends to make a fully autonomous system, where a drone can identify a target, take off, then rely on onboard map systems and neural networks to navigate and attack.
It was founded in 2023 by Yaroslav Azhnyuk, an entrepreneur who had previously founded three startups, including the pet tech company, Petcube. It has not disclosed funding.
Milrem Robotics
Estonia
Founded: 2013
Unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) are not new, but they have been used in Ukraine’s war with Russia to a degree not seen before. In December, the Ukrainian military launched an all-robot assault in which UGVs played a prominent role.
The Estonian startup Milrem Robotics has been making UGVs since 2014, which were then first used in operations by the Estonian military in 2019. In 2023, the company entered in an agreement with Ukraine to develop robot vehicles to meet the country’s military needs, while also testing its technology on the battlefield.
Milrem has used AI to lend a degree of autonomy to its products. The Type-X vehicle, for instance, uses a combination of AI and remote control. It also develops the Milrem Intelligent Function Integration Kit (MIFIK), which can be installed in a manned or unmanned vehicle to make it autonomous.
Milrem was acquired by the UAE defence firm EDGE Group in 2023.
FoxFour
Estonia
Founded: 2023
FoxFour is making AI-powered vision processing software for guiding drones.
One strong reason to keep an eye on the company is the history of one of its cofounders. Oleksandr Chendekov has had over ten years’ worth of experience working on unmanned aerial systems, including as a consultant, director of a drone manufacturing company and as CTO of Airlogix, another drone startup. A Kyiv Independent article referred to him as “the father of the Ukrainian drone.”
FoxFour’s main product is its Visual Guidance Module, which works on guiding drones, detecting objects and navigating without visual information. The startup is part of Andriy Dovbenko’s UK-Ukraine TechExchange’s cohort, mentioned in this list’s introduction. UK-Ukraine TechExchange is a network for UK and Ukrainian startups making defence tech to raise their profile and reach investors.
So far, FoxFour has not made any announcements on funding. But it has begun working with manufacturers in Germany and has been doing the rounds at trade shows to demo its technology.
AI Verse
France
Founded: 2020
As the rest of this list demonstrates, there are a lot of people in the world trying to train a visual AI system that can be effective on the battlefield. But doing so is far from easy.
Benoit Morisset, the founder of French startup AI Verse, told GCV that he realised a bottleneck in training was the laborious process of collecting and labelling images to be fed into the model. That led him to set up AI Verse. Instead of a user having to go out and take countless shots of military equipment, the startup’s image generation engine can synthesise a diverse and labelled dataset with just a few commands, which could drastically reduce training time and cost, not to mention human error.
AI Verse received €2.5m ($2.8m) in a 2021 funding round led by Innovacom and Bpifrance. This year, it took part in an accelerator programme run by the UK’s Ministry of Defence, in partnership with the Janus Consortium, a group of dual-use companies. The accelerator was a part of Nato’s Diana programme.
Epirus
US
Founded: 2018
Epirus flips the script on AI systems being used for drone targeting. Instead, its air defence products use big data and machine learning to identify threats from the air. It calls this air domain awareness. It allows the user to identify and track airborne drones, even ones working in a swarm.
It can go on the offensive too. Epirus also supplies high power microwave (HPM) emitters designed to disable drone swarms in flight. These products, known as the Leonidas range, include HPM technology that can be mounted on the back of trucks.
Epirus has cleared a number of tests in its path to supply to the US military, including delivering prototypes to be used. Its most recent raise was a $250m series D round in March, led by 8VC and Washington Harbour Partners. General Dynamics Land Systems, a US military vehicle manufacturer, was a strategic investor.
DefSecIntel
Estonia
Founded: 2018
DefSecIntel is an Estonian startup that makes autonomous surveillance products and counter-aerial drone defence systems which use AI. This has resulted in a diverse product range, including a command and control centre that uses AI to detect threats but keeps a human operator in charge. It also makes a system that can detect aerial threats at short range, jam signals or even send out interception drones to attack.
The startup was founded in 2018 and has grown to a workforce of over 120 people. Beyond the HQ in Estonia it also has an office in Germany and an R&D hub in Ukraine, where its technology is tested on the battlefield.
In March, Estonia’s Ministry of Defence signed a mutual goodwill agreement with the company to support the development of a project to protect critical underwater infrastructure. The Ministry promised an undisclosed amount of grant funding.
Helsing
German
Founded: 2021
Many people are already watching Helsing, the German unicorn that has become one of Europe’s most successful AI startups. It was founded in 2021 and received initial funding of €100m in a round led by Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s investment firm. Today, only four years after its founding, the company is valued at around $5bn.
Helsing’s story captures many of the dominant themes in European defence tech. First, it focused on developing AI to process battlefield data for insights, then recently it began making drones equipped with a degree of autonomy. Like many startups in the sector, its technology has been hardened on the battlefield in Ukraine. And even though it has not been around for very long, the period since its inception has seen a dramatic shift from general investor squeamishness about defence to the enthusiasm of 2025, with Helsing being something of a representative case as VC money has flown in and its valuation has boomed.
Its product range includes Altra, an AI-powered system that connects battlefield vehicles and allows the user to coordinate them. It also makes HX-2 attack drones, which are designed to be produced at scale, and can run autonomously in jammed environments.
The Swedish defence prime Saab has previously backed Helsing. Its most recent funding round of €450m ($518m) was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Saab, and the VCs Accel, Lightspeed, Plural and Greenoaks.
Quantum Systems
Germany
Founded: 2015
Quantum Systems makes aerial reconnaissance drones with AI capabilities that can provide live insights to the operator and give the crafts a degree of automation.
The company develops both hardware and software. The software side emphasises the use of AI to analyse the environment for situational awareness.
In a funding round this week, Quantum System raised €160m ($181m) from investors including the defence companies Hensholdt and Airbus Defence and Space. Balderton Capital, a VC firm, led the round. With this raise, Quantum Systems is now valued at over $1bn.
Tekever
Portugal
Founded: 2001
Tekever’s latest funding round was announced on the same day as Quantum Systems’, and reports say that the Portuguese startup is now valued at over $1bn.
The company makes AI-powered drones which are capable of taking off on unpaved airstrips. They are designed for reconnaissance with both military and commercial applications.
Along with the new funding, Tekever also announced a five-year project of investing £400m ($534m) in the UK, where it has an office. Part of this will focus on expanding its aerial drone ranges.
Blue Water Autonomy
US
Founded: 2024
We are used to thinking of autonomous water-borne vehicles as being jet ski or speedboat-sized. But Boston-based Blue Water Autonomy are trying something on a larger scale.
The company is developing autonomous naval ships that can travel thousands of miles and carry tons of cargo, all without the need of a crew or a captain. It has made an autonomy software stack powered by AI, and intends to create ships that can be mass produced and delivered at pace to meet the US’s shipbuilding needs.
Two of the three cofounders are ex-US Navy officers with backgrounds in technology and engineering. The company emerged from stealth in April, less than a year after being founded. It has raised a $14m seed funding round with participation from VCs Eclipse, Riot and Impatient Ventures.
