Israel has built some of the most sophisticated air defense systems in the world, but FPV drones and swarms have increasingly become a bit of an Achilles heel for the country’s military, particularly in its fight against Hezbollah.
One startup is looking to change that, and is bringing some serious US investing firepower along with them.
Yesterday, Skapion, an Israeli-American c-UAS startup building what they’re calling the “Iron Dome for drone swarms,” emerged from stealth with $36M in seed funding and a team, fittingly, made up of former Iron Dome program leaders.
- The seed round was led by VC giant Khosla Ventures and UP.Partners, a Santa Monica-based firm that’s backed some familiar names like Hermeus and Skydio. Early backers Fusion VC, Stratos Ventures, TBD VC, and Q Fund participated in the round.
Change is in the air: The Iron Dome is famously effective against missile threats, but smaller and cheaper FPV and fiber-optic drones have quickly emerged as the primary threat to Israeli forces, especially in Lebanon. They are now the leading cause of Israeli battlefield casualties, accounting for seven out of 11 soldiers killed since the not-so-ceasefire with Lebanon took effect in April, per the IDF.
Skapion’s founding team, which includes the former general manager of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ Air and Missile Defense Systems division (which built the Iron Dome and David’s Sling air defense systems) and the former head of drone company XTEND’s defense business, is taking that expertise into the domain of small and speedy threats.
Swarm swatters: Based in DC with its R&D headquarters in Israel, Skapion’s building, in the words of Stephen Rodriguez, an advisor and early backer of the startup and the head of DCVC’s defense investing practice, “A small-scale launcher system that fires numerous kinetic drone interceptors that can take down hundreds of drones coming at once.”
- The mobile, end-to-end system can detect, engage, and shoot down drone swarms in degraded and denied environments, and since it’s platform-agnostic, it can be vehicle-based or operate at a fixed site.
- It’s designed with the FPV and fiber-optic drones causing the most immediate problems in mind, but it “can go Group Two and above,” Rodriguez told Tectonic.
Drone-downing dollars: A $36M seed round is pretty sizeable, but given that the founding team is responsible for the Iron Dome, it seems like a safe bet, and was certainly a contributing factor to getting one of the biggest names in VC, Khosla Ventures, on board.
“I think one of our first slides was, ‘This is the team that built the Iron Dome.’ Like, what more do you want?” Rodriguez said. “I don’t have to believe that these guys can pull off very technical integrated systems, because that’s exactly what they did.”
The system is already operational and “definitely proven,” but he couldn’t comment on any active contracts with the Israeli military or others.
Despite the team’s background in Israel, Skapion has its eyes—and HQ—stateside.
“A lot of Israeli companies are like, ‘Yeah, we have a US operation, but really it’s one guy in the US and everyone else in [Israel],” Rodriguez said. “In this case, the entire company is in the US—it’s a US company—so they’re already kind of purpose-built to address and tackle the US market from the outset.”
Seems like one to keep an eye on.