€1m · Pre-Seed · Cybersecurity, Defence · Lithuania
Valkyrie Dynamics, a Ukrainian-Lithuanian defence hardware company developing miniature radar seekers for drone interceptors, has raised €1m in pre-seed funding from Paris-based venture studio Hexa and defence-tech angel investors. The capital will fund the first production version of its Heimdall seeker, further product development and team growth. Hexa announced the round and its intended uses.
A small radar at the integration point
Heimdall is designed to sit in the nose of an FPV or autonomous interceptor. Optical and thermal guidance can struggle in fog, rain, smoke, snow and darkness; the seeker instead uses radio-frequency sensing to keep a target visible during the final approach. According to Hexa's announcement, the unit weighs about 100 grams, is intended to provide a radar view in the final 100–500 metres, and has a target price below €300 at volume.
The company is selling a component rather than a complete interceptor. That gives Valkyrie a route into several drone platforms without financing every airframe, but it also makes integration the commercial bottleneck. Its buyer is likely an interceptor maker or guidance-system supplier that must fit the seeker around power, weight, software and flight-control constraints. A low unit price can support expendable air-defence economics only if Valkyrie can turn each engineering project into a repeatable interface and production order.
Valkyrie describes Heimdall as a drop-in, low-SWaP seeker, while keeping full mechanical and electrical specifications private for qualified buyers. Hexa says recent flight tests involved Ukrainian-Estonian autonomy developer Korven Systems and that integrations are under way with interceptor and guidance-module manufacturers in Ukraine. Those tests demonstrate technical progress, but they are not yet evidence of scaled orders.
Manufacturing is only half the scale-up
Valkyrie operates a physical R&D lab in Kyiv and is headquartered in Lithuania, according to Tech.eu's event-specific reporting. Building close to frontline operators can shorten feedback cycles, while the Lithuanian base and planned European integration hubs may help the company support NATO procurement programmes. The harder task is preserving rapid field-led iteration while standardising a sensor that multiple manufacturers can qualify and buy in volume.
The roadmap extends beyond the current seeker. Valkyrie's official product site lists a smaller radar and a next-generation imaging radar in development. The pre-seed therefore finances both near-term manufacturing and the product breadth needed to serve more platforms. Progress will be visible in successful integrations, repeat orders and whether sub-€300 economics survive the shift from prototypes to production.
