Gallium Defense raises €7.1M seed for low-cost drone radar

A supplier, not a defence prime

The company was founded in April 2026 by three former Boston Consulting Group colleagues: CEO Eric Fournier, CTO Florian Lemoine and COO Robin Mandel. Rather than become a systems integrator, they chose to be a specialist radar supplier, partnering with French radio-frequency firm Inoveos. Fournier admitted the pitch was "not a super sexy story" at first, but Dutch investor Keen Venture Partners backed the model and other investors followed quickly.

Telecoms parts to cut cost

The design leans on commercially available technology. The antenna uses gallium-based amplification components common in 5G, and the company claims it has cut antenna unit costs by more than tenfold. With about 512 antenna elements in the GDS-10, each saving is multiplied accordingly. Processing runs on NVIDIA hardware, which Fournier says offers more than 100 times the capacity of some conventional approaches, while high-speed optical links from telecoms carry data between antenna and processor. The architecture is designed to take on more advanced signal processing and object classification through software updates.

Fournier summed up the goal as meeting 80 per cent of the need at 20 per cent of the price.

Where it stands

Two operational antennas exist, and the first two GDS-10 prototypes entered development in June. The company has demonstrated detection of Class 1 drones at 10 kilometres, but only under controlled conditions, with favourable weather and known target locations. Real-world performance remains to be proven as the startup moves from demonstrations toward commercial deployment.