The Hacking for Defense Empire is expanding—and this time, to continental Europe. This morning, the Common Mission Project (CMP) announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’re officially launching the Hacking for Defense (H4D) academic program in Germany in partnership with the University of the Bundeswehr (UniBwM). The program—founded by Pete Newell, Steve Blank, […]
Remember all those videos of Ukrainian sea drones taking out Russia’s Black Sea Fleet? Well, UFORCE, the company making those USVs and a whole range of unmanned systems, officially emerged from stealth today with a $1B+ valuation after raising over $50M from a transatlantic team led by Shield Capital and Lakestar. Good news for all […]
If you thought the unmanned surface vessel world couldn’t get any busier, well, think again. This morning, Belgian maritime autonomy startup MAHI unveiled a 27-foot high-speed USV called the Alpha-8, designed as a demonstration vessel for its autonomy stack in exercises and training with the Belgian Navy, at least to start. Fishy business: MAHI, in […]
Well, we’re running with a bit of a theme today. Can someone let us know why everyone is raising pretty much the exact same amount of money on the exact same day? Yesterday, German interceptor hotshot TYTAN announced that it’s raised a €30M Series A led by Armira and NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), with support […]
If there’s one thing sharing a border with Russia has taught the Baltics in the past few years, it’s that drone defense is pretty damn important. Luckily, a crop of high-octane startups is rushing to meet the moment, and securing some serious cash to get there. Yesterday, Estonian interceptor startup Frankenburg Technologies announced a €30M […]
Quantum Systems is officially entering the ground autonomy game, baby. Earlier today, German autonomy hotshot Quantum Systems introduced MANDRILL, its first unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), at the Enforce Tac trade show in Nuremberg. The $3.5B startup, better known for its aerial drones, called it the first in a line of UGVs designed to work with […]
Our friends in Europe are having quite the start to the week. In case you missed it: On Friday, leaders of the European Group of Five (E5)—Europe’s five biggest defense powers—announced from Krakow that they’re banding together to beef up low-cost air defense. The new “multi-million euro” project—known as the Low-Cost Effectors & Autonomous Platforms’ […]
Well, the European drone dudes certainly aren’t messing around at the Munich Security Conference. Yesterday, German drone giant Quantum Systems (QS) announced that it’s secured €150M ($178M) in financing backed by the European Investment Bank (EIB), Commerzbank, KfW, and Deutsche Bank. The company says the money will be used to “support the company’s continued growth […]
The great American leap across the pond continues. This morning, autonomy giant (and dual-use stan) Applied Intuition announced that it has officially been awarded a UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Defence and Science Technology Laboratory (DSTL) to “deliver a complete autonomy test bed for ground-launched, near-surface drone swarms.” Applied will lead a consortium of companies—Rowden […]
The mash-ups continue. This morning, Second Front Systems (2F) and UK-based Valarian announced a strategic partnership to pair up Second Front’s government-facing commercial tech adoption software with Valarian’s sovereignty-focused data infrastructure to build a “new generation of sovereign-by-design digital solutions with controlled deployment pathways, compartmentalized environments, and audit-first infrastructure.” For the illiterate among us—basically, the […]
