Estonian-Ukrainian defence technology company DOD Solution, which develops onboard autonomy for unmanned systems, has raised a €1.8M pre-seed round to accelerate the development and scaling of its AURA AI platform.
According to the official press release, the funding group includes Angel One Fund, Better Angle, Defence Builder Fund, Network VC, Newfund, UAID Fund, WildField Ventures and 4C-Next Holding AG, alongside a number of angel investors. The round gives DOD additional capital and strategic backing as it expands the use of onboard artificial intelligence across different unmanned platforms.
DOD is making autonomy easier to integrate
AURA AI combines the AURA SBC onboard computer with AURA OS, DOD’s autonomy software stack. The platform is designed to support autonomous navigation, perception, target recognition and tracking, and terminal guidance when GPS or communications are degraded or unavailable. It has already been used in combat in Ukraine.
The system can be integrated with FPV drones, interceptor drones and fixed-wing UAVs. Its hardware and software architecture is intended to give platform manufacturers an integrator-friendly way to add mission autonomy, including visual navigation and last-mile targeting, without tying the capability to a single unmanned system.
“Autonomy needs to work across different unmanned systems and operational environments, rather than remain a capability tied to a single platform. Our focus now is to make AURA AI easier to integrate, faster to scale and capable of supporting increasingly demanding onboard applications. This round gives us the resources and the right partners to accelerate that transition,” said Roman Hapachylo, CEO of DOD Solution.
DOD has also built technology partnerships with Lantronix, Axelera AI and Defsecintel Solutions. The relationships cover onboard computing, AI acceleration and integrated counter-drone capabilities.
DOD is expanding onboard computing capacity
In a separate announcement, DOD Solution said it will integrate Axelera AI’s Metis® M.2 card into the AURA AI computing architecture. The partnership initially focuses on high-performance computing for high-speed interceptors, where sensor processing, target recognition, tracking, navigation and terminal guidance must take place within milliseconds.
The integration is intended to increase onboard AI inference capacity for compute-intensive functions such as high-speed target recognition, tracking, sensor fusion and autonomous guidance. The companies are addressing the limits of offboard processing in environments where GPS is denied and communications are constrained.
“The next generation of autonomous defence systems will require a fundamentally new level of onboard AI performance. We believe DoD Solution’s expertise in autonomy and mission computing makes them an excellent partner to explore how high-performance AI acceleration can unlock new operational capabilities and security. We look forward to advancing this collaboration together,” said Bram Verhoef, Vice President of Customer Success at Axelera AI.
For DOD, the €1.8M investment will support the transition from individual deployments to a broader autonomy platform that can be integrated across multiple unmanned systems and scaled with technology and industry partners.
Interested in investing in Estonia? Explore Defence opportunities. For tailored guidance, request e-Consulting from Invest Estonia’s advisors.
