Melbourne defence tech startup Arkeus has raised $25 million at a $100 million valuation in a in Series A round led by QIC Ventures.
The round drew new investors R+VC, Folklore Ventures and Dyne Ventures alongside existing backers Main Sequence Ventures, Salus Ventures and Steve Baxter’s Beaten Zone Venture Partners.
According to Dealroom, the post-money valuation lands at around A$100 million — roughly seven times what the company was worth at seed two years ago.
Arkeus was founded in a Melbourne one-car garage in 2020 by CEO Simon Olsen and aerospace engineer Dr Jonathan Nebauer, after they watched drone operators struggle with false positives while hunting drug operations in Colombia.
The company builds hyperspectral imaging sensors paired with onboard AI, so that drones and other autonomous platforms can detect and track objects in real time.
“Modern defence is moving toward systems that can operate and make decisions in real time, without relying on constant human input or vulnerable data links,” Olsen said.
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Arkeus’ systems are already integrated with drones from AeroVironment, Textron, Tekever and Boeing subsidiary Insitu. It’s even winning US Department of War contracts, beating US-based incumbents on home soil.
The Series A money is going into a Queensland-based manufacturing and sustainment facility, plus a local team to service Australian Defence customers in the region.
“This capital allows us to scale manufacturing and get capability into the field faster, while expanding across a broader set of platforms and customers,” Olsen said.
The Arkeus HSOR warden sitting front and centre on an Insitu Pacific Integrator, picked by the Australian Department of Defence. Image: supplied
QIC Ventures Investment Director Nick Capell framed the bet around the structural shift from human-piloted to software-defined drones.
“We’re seeing defence move toward software-defined, autonomous systems where sensing and decision-making at the edge are critical,” Capell said.
Defence tech is having a moment locally given, you know, the absolute state of the world.
Baxter’s Beaten Zone Venture Partners — a backer of Arkeus from its $4.45 million seed round in late 2023 — is now building a $60 million sector-focused fund.
The federal government is also setting up a $1 billion Advanced Capabilities Investment Fund co-funded by private VCs.
And the Navy just spent $176 million on 40 maritime drones from Sydney’s Ocius — a fleet Arkeus’ sensors could plausibly end up sitting on top of.
Arkeus secured the Australian Army Wide Area Airborne Surveillance Program in November 2025 to fit out its Tactical UAS fleet, and the Series A follows a $5 million follow-on from existing investors in March 2025.
