A Shahed attack drone costs tens of thousands of euros. The missiles traditionally fired to shoot one down can cost a million or more. A French startup has raised €50mn to fix that maths.
Alta Ares, a Paris-based defence-technology company founded in 2024, said on Tuesday it had closed a €50mn round led by Air Street Capital, with Cherry Ventures, OTB Ventures, and Harpoon Ventures joining and existing backers renewing their commitments.
The company builds AI-guided interceptors designed to detect, track, and destroy drones, cruise missiles, and glide bombs, and says its systems are already deployed across three active conflict zones in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
The pitch rests on the inverted economics of modern war. Cheap, mass-produced autonomous weapons have made the old air-defence model, firing exquisite, expensive missiles at disposable targets, unsustainable. NATO allies, Alta Ares notes, now face coordinated salvos that can combine more than 600 drones and dozens of missiles in a single night.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The answer, it argues, is interceptors cheap and adaptable enough to match that tempo.
