The war in Ukraine led drones to the leaders of the modern war, causing an increase in demand for counter-dron systems.
However, older solutions that counteract drones, equivalent to ground defense and cybernetic systems, often have a high price. For a German startup Alpine EagleThese solutions are not short: when drones from the first person in the amount of $ 500 (FPV) have the ability to destroy tanks price many hundreds of thousands of dollars, profitable answers are needed.
“We use inexpensive, mass systems to determine symmetry against the numerical advantage of cheap strike drones,” said Techcrunch, Dutch entrepreneur Jan-Hendrik Boelens. Alpine Eagle from Munich, which co -founded in 2023, develops Sentinel, a mixture of software and equipment focusing on cost performance.
In contrast to competitive solutions based on grounds equivalent to Hover controlSentinel is in the air, with modular sensors that are not hindered by the area and other obstacles, while avoiding a steel goal.
His mother, who is sophisticated, but is not intended, transmits Kamikaze interceptors, which also help him to do greater than detecting threats or disturb them: they’ll either capture objects using a network or completely destroy enemy drones.
While potential applications exist in law enforcement agencies and other sectors, the current geopolitical climate caused the demand for this technology primarily in the army. The startup from Munich secured the German army as a client, in addition to other government agencies, and said that he achieved seven digital revenues in the first 12 months of work.
This helped close the round of EUR 10.25 million (about 10.96 million dollars) run by British Deep Tech VC IQ Capital. New financing will help startup to expand their current team of machine learning and air engineers, with latest employments in various products, engineering, business and sales development, increasing the number of tables to 40.
The indisputable fact that the round is run by the British company VC is not an accident because the startup will have Great Britain as a key market for its expansion. It is also because his market goes beyond the battlefields Recent events also emphasizing the have to protect military bases and wider infrastructure.
Despite this, there is little doubt that Alpine Eagle is part of the growth of European defense technology and VC interest in the sector, especially in countries that feel the most threatening.
In addition to returning investors, General Catalyst and HCVC, his CAP table now also includes funds from Estonia, Germany and Poland. “We were looking for a consortium of European investors that share both the urgency of construction [a] The European Defense Technology Ecosystem and which are in key countries, “Boelens said.
Despite this sense of urgency, Boelens didn’t wish to hurry with the entry of Sentinel to Ukraine. “Our approach was to make sure that we first have a mature system to deliver them not to waste time on something that does not work yet. We saw how too many startups do it and we felt that we should go there only when the system does what he should. “
After verifying the system using the German army, he is now testing his system in Ukraine and talks to varied brigades, which helped discover the use of use on the front line. One is Fiber optic drones; The use of cables as an alternative of radio frequency makes it difficult to detect or jam.
Drones, which are proof against RF interference, will be a challenge even for Epirus, Start -Tup of American Defense Technologies co -founded by Joe Lonsdale, who has just raised the D series price $ 250 million and whose flagship product Leonidas radiates high -power microwaves.
In contrast, the Alpine Eagle Air System can integrate various sensors, including radar panels to detect low -flying drones, which frequently avoid ground systems.
The jamming goes each ways. This is one of the features in which Alpine Eagle uses artificial intelligence, with the processing of data on board the equipment for navigation purposes, in addition to collecting data to persuade their algorithms “to have more adaptive tactics based on what they actually perceived in reality.”
One of the key tactical features of Sentinel is roy, which is also the sale point of the latest drone models from the German technology company Helsing. The use of it to counteract drone strategies is in line with the same logic of reducing costs and victims, with a modern war that is increasingly unmanned.
“We realized that all Western powers have a problem for the lack of enough soldiers, which is why we try to build a system in which many drones can be operated by one operator, using high levels of automation and really promoting a soldier to the mission manager, not a pilot,” said Boelens.