Valkyrie Dynamics Raises €1M for Drone Interceptor Radar

A radar for the last few hundred metres

Most low-cost interceptors rely on optical and thermal cameras, which struggle in rain, fog, smoke and snow. Citing recent analysis, the company says bad weather can cut drone visibility by up to 80 per cent beyond a few dozen metres. Russia is also replacing propeller-driven Shaheds with faster jet-powered variants that typical interceptors cannot catch.

Valkyrie's answer is Heimdall, a terminal guidance radar seeker that sits in the nose cone of FPV interceptors. In the final 100 to 500 metres, it gives the operator a radar view instead of a camera feed. It weighs around 100 grams, and the target price is below €300 per unit at volume. It supports piloted flight and, paired with a partner's guidance module, autonomous flight, while the decision to engage stays with a human pilot or the interceptor maker's own systems.

Founder and CEO Marcin Kovalevskij, an engineering physicist who previously worked at CNRS and Exotrail, began the concept on weekends in Lithuania after talks with Ukrainian officers at the European Defence Tech Hackathon in London in 2025. He then moved to Kyiv with two suitcases of equipment and slept on the floor of a previously bombed factory for five months. A working prototype followed by October 2026, when Valkyrie joined the Hexa Sprint Defense programme as its first Ukrainian team.

What comes next

Valkyrie is integrating Heimdall with guidance-module and interceptor makers and has flight-tested with Korven Systems, a Ukrainian-Estonian autonomy developer. The roadmap includes seekers with longer detection range and a wider field of view, European technical integration hubs planned for late 2026 to serve NATO procurement, and eventually radar for ground vehicles and other unmanned platforms.