NATO Innovation Fund Leads €15M Series A in Kelluu Autonomous Airships

Kelluu, a Finnish deep technology company specializing in autonomous hydrogen-powered airships, has raised €15 million in a Series A funding round led by the NATO Innovation Fund. This marks the NATO Innovation Fund’s inaugural investment in a Finnish company. The round also includes participation from Keen Venture Partners, VC Gungnir Capital, and Finnish state-owned investment company Tesi, which also invested in the round.

The funding follows Kelluu’s successful completion of two phases of NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) program, which validates its technology for operational use within NATO and allied forces. Kelluu’s autonomous airships provide persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, delivering continuous monitoring with drone-level detail across vast and remote areas.

Kelluu’s hydrogen-lift airships operate silently and emission-free, capable of enduring extreme weather conditions, GPS jamming, and complex airspace environments where traditional drones and satellites face limitations. The company’s fleet can operate for over 12 hours per mission, with five airships covering an area of approximately 30,000 square kilometres—comparable to the size of Belgium.

Founded in 2018 in Joensuu, Finland, Kelluu designs, manufactures, and operates autonomous airships that serve defence, border security, critical infrastructure, and environmental sectors. The company offers an “airship-as-a-service” model and has logged over 50,000 kilometres of flight, including Arctic missions in temperatures as low as -33°C.

Strategically, this investment strengthens Kelluu’s position as a leading provider of persistent ISR solutions in Europe, particularly within NATO member states. The company’s technology bridges the gap between satellites, which provide broad but low-resolution coverage, and drones, which offer high-resolution data but limited endurance and operational range. Kelluu’s airships enhance NATO’s deterrence posture along the Eastern Flank, maritime approaches, and the High North by delivering continuous, high-precision sensing.

In recent exercises, Kelluu demonstrated real-time integration with NATO systems, including a February 2026 multi-domain NATO exercise involving 10,000 troops from 13 nations. The company’s platform is designed for STANAG compliance and integrates directly into allied command and control systems, providing a common operational picture.

Beyond defence, Kelluu’s technology supports civilian applications such as forestry monitoring, meteorology, and smart-city sensing, offering cost-effective alternatives to manned aviation. The company is also advancing Kelluu AI Labs, which aims to develop geospatial enterprise models that combine AI with physical environment data to enhance predictive analytics for defence, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring.

The €15 million funding will enable Kelluu to optimize its technology, scale operations, and expand its autonomous airship fleet. The investment aligns with increasing European defence budgets focused on closing capability gaps in persistent ISR and supports Kelluu’s ongoing collaboration with NATO and allied forces.

Looking ahead, Kelluu faces integration challenges including aligning multinational investor objectives, regulatory approvals, and operational deployment in harsh environments. However, the company’s proven technology and strategic partnerships position it to capitalize on growing demand for autonomous ISR platforms in defence and civilian sectors.