Kelluu secures €15M to develop a continuous aerial intelligence framework for Europe.

      The Finnish deep tech firm, which operates the largest fleet of autonomous airships globally, has secured a Series A funding round led by the NATO Innovation Fund, marking the Fund’s inaugural investment in a Finnish enterprise. Their airships are capable of covering 30,000 square kilometers from just one base and have undergone testing in live NATO exercises.

      Kelluu, a Finnish deep tech company specializing in autonomous hydrogen-powered airships for ongoing surveillance and intelligence collection, has successfully raised €15 million in a Series A funding round. This round was spearheaded by the NATO Innovation Fund, which is supported by 24 NATO member nations, and represents its first venture into investing in a Finnish company.

      Additional participants in the funding include VC firm Keen Venture Partners, based in Amsterdam and London, Swedish early-stage defense-focused VC Gungnir Capital, and Tesi, the state-owned investment firm of Finland.

      The investment will aid in further enhancing Kelluu’s technology and expanding its science engineering team that is currently deployed. The firm is involved in the design, manufacturing, and operation of nearly silent, emission-free hydrogen-lift airships that can function in temperatures as low as -33°C, endure sustained GNSS jamming, and operate under the harsh conditions of the Arctic. Five of its airships, launching from a single base, can cover an area of 30,000 square kilometers, which is akin to the size of Belgium.

      The fleet has accumulated over 50,000 kilometers of flight, including missions lasting up to 12 hours in the Arctic. In contrast to satellites, which provide broad area coverage at low resolution and with infrequent revisits, and drones that lack long endurance capabilities or reliable operation in extreme cold, Kelluu's airships bridge the gap by offering continuous presence, high-precision sensing, and resilience where conventional platforms struggle.

      This investment comes after Kelluu completed two phases of NATO's DIANA program, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, having been chosen as one of 15 companies from over 2,600 applicants.

      In February 2026, during the Exercise Steadfast Dart 26 in Germany, which involved 10,000 troops from 13 nations in a multi-domain NATO exercise, Kelluu achieved real-time integration with the Maven Smart System, enabling the delivery of live video and geolocation data to allied forces.

      The company has also showcased its capability for persistent aerial autonomy at the NATO Innovation Range Technical Demonstration for the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line in Finland and has conducted exercises with NATO Maritime Command.

      Kelluu’s platform is inherently designed for dual-use applications. Its civilian uses encompass forestry monitoring, meteorology, and smart-city sensing. Furthermore, the company is developing Kelluu AI Labs, an initiative aimed at constructing foundational models for the physical environment, creating a geospatial data flywheel where, as CEO Janne Hietala articulates, each flight hour and sensor pass contributes to datasets that are challenging to replicate.