Kelluu Raises €15M Series A to Scale Autonomous Airship Intelligence Platform
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Finnish deeptech company Kelluu has secured €15 million in a Series A round led by the NATO Innovation Fund, marking the fund’s first investment in a Finnish startup. The round includes participation from Keen Venture Partners, Gungnir Capital and Finnish state investor Tesi, and will accelerate the commercial deployment of Kelluu’s autonomous hydrogen-powered airships across defence and civil markets.
Headquartered in Joensuu and operating what it describes as the world’s northernmost airship factory, Kelluu builds 12-metre unmanned airships that combine the resolution of drones with the persistence of satellites. The aircraft use hydrogen for both lift and propulsion, allowing missions of more than 12 hours while carrying payload modules of up to six kilograms. Typical configurations include LiDAR, hyperspectral cameras and thermal imagers — enabling high-frequency monitoring of industrial sites, borders and critical infrastructure.
A different kind of airborne intelligence
Where conventional drones struggle with endurance and satellites lack resolution, Kelluu’s airships are designed for persistent, low-altitude coverage. The company sells the capability as a service: customers commission missions and receive processed data rather than purchasing hardware. The model has gained traction among mining operators, border authorities and NATO planners.
Finnish mining company Terrafame already uses Kelluu’s fleet to generate 3D digital models of a 60-square-kilometre industrial site, helping monitor slope stability and optimise operations. On the defence side, Kelluu was recently integrated into NATO’s AI-driven command system and participated in REPMUS — one of the alliance’s largest exercises for unmanned maritime and aerial systems.
According to chief executive Janne Hietala, the Series A will enable Kelluu to scale deployments, deepen its geospatial AI capabilities and meet demand from both civil and defence partners.
NATO Innovation Fund makes its first Finnish bet
The NATO Innovation Fund — the €1 billion multi-sovereign vehicle backed by 24 allied nations — has been steadily investing in dual-use deeptech companies across Europe. Its decision to lead Kelluu’s round signals continued appetite for autonomous systems with defence applications, particularly those offering sovereign alternatives to US and Chinese hardware.
The fund’s participation also reflects Europe’s broader push to strengthen its defence-industrial base. Kelluu joins a growing roster of European unmanned-systems companies — from Tekever in Portugal to Helsing in Germany — attracting significant capital as governments rebuild strategic capabilities.
Keen Venture Partners and Gungnir Capital both bring deeptech investment experience, while Tesi, Finland’s state-backed investor, continues its pattern of supporting domestic champions in critical industries.
What the capital will fund
Kelluu plans to use the proceeds to expand its autonomous airship fleet and commercial deployments, further develop its geospatial AI platform through Kelluu AI Labs, broaden its defence-sector partnerships across NATO member states, and scale manufacturing capacity at its Joensuu facility.
The company positions itself not as a hardware vendor but as an aerial-data provider, and the investment will help it move further along that axis — investing in the software layer that turns raw sensor output into operational intelligence.
A maturing European deeptech play
Kelluu’s raise lands at a moment of renewed European focus on sovereign aerospace capability. With NATO exercises increasingly featuring unmanned systems and European governments raising defence budgets, persistent aerial monitoring is becoming a strategic requirement rather than a niche capability.
For a company founded in a city closer to the Arctic Circle than to any major capital, Kelluu has carved out an unusually distinctive position: part airship manufacturer, part geospatial AI company, and now a NATO-backed European deeptech scaleup.
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