Norway's Stendr Raises $5.4M for AI Systems to Defend Europe Against Drones

Norway's Stendr has closed an oversubscribed $5.4M pre-seed round, betting on one of the hottest niches in the defense market: finding and tracking drones with AI. The startup is building a system that is meant to do more than just spot UAVs. It fuses data from several sensors into a single picture, tracks the target and quickly passes information to operators so they can respond. For Europe, this is no longer an experimental problem but a practical need.

The round was co-led by RainFall, ACME and SkyFall. Sisyphus, Antler, StartupLab, Off Piste, Andoya Ventures and a syndicate of European and global tech investors also took part. The company is based in Oslo and has built a vertically integrated stack from the start: its own hardware, software and AI models for defense scenarios.

Stendr will use the funds to speed up development of its multi-sensor technology, expand its engineering team, strengthen the hardware side and make its first deployments for defense-sector customers. For a pre-seed company, that is a notable signal: investors are willing to fund not only models and software but also defense hardware, as long as they see clear demand.

The project is led by Aleksandr Leonard Larsen, co-founder and former COO of Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity. In October 2021, Sky Mavis was valued at $3B after a $150M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz. But by March 2022, the company was at the center of what was then the largest crypto hack ever: the North Korea-linked Lazarus group exploited a vulnerability in the Ronin network and drained roughly $620M in crypto assets.

Sky Mavis later compensated users and separately raised another $150M from Binance and other investors to cover the shortfall. For Larsen, the episode was a turning point: his focus shifted from growth at any cost to system resilience, security and scenarios where infrastructure failure is too costly.

Stendr's initial specialization is counter-drone technology. This is not about expensive exotic platforms but about mass-produced autonomous and semi-autonomous drones that can cost hundreds of dollars yet disable equipment and facilities worth millions. That imbalance became especially visible in the war in Ukraine and effectively rewrote battlefield defense requirements.

Stendr wants to cover the first and most underrated link in the chain: detection, tracking and full situational awareness. If a defender does not see a drone in time and does not understand its trajectory, every subsequent measure loses effectiveness. The company's goal is to give European customers their own system that does not depend on outside suppliers at a critical moment.

European sovereignty is a separate emphasis. As the EU tries to reduce its dependence on American defense suppliers, local technology is getting not only political support but also budget. In March 2026, the EU approved the European Defence Industry Programme with a budget of €1.47B for 2026–2027, of which €30M is set aside specifically for joint procurement of integrated counter-drone systems. The market itself is also growing fast: according to MarketsandMarkets, the global counter-UAS segment could grow from about $6.6B in 2025 to $20.3B by 2030.

Andoya Ventures' participation also looks symbolic: the investor is linked to Andoya Space Centre, and the Nordic region is increasingly building its own defense and space infrastructure.

This is an important case for the market for several reasons. First, founders from the consumer and crypto sectors are increasingly entering defense, bringing the ability to build product teams quickly and work with global capital. Second, investors are confirming that AI in defense is no longer just analytics and headquarters software but also real hardware at the front line. Third, Europe is articulating ever more clearly its demand for its own security technology stack.

If Stendr can quickly bring the system to real-world deployments, the company has a chance to claim a very timely niche.