Finnish deeptech firm Kelluu has secured €15 million in a Series A funding round led by the NATO Innovation Fund, marking the fund’s first investment in a Finnish company. The capital will scale its autonomous hydrogen-powered airship fleet for persistent aerial surveillance and intelligence.
Keen Venture Partners, Gungnir Capital, and Finnish state investor Tesi joined the round. Kelluu operates the world’s largest fleet of these near-silent, emission-free airships, capable of enduring Arctic conditions down to -33°C and GNSS jamming.
Five airships from a single base cover 30,000 square kilometers—equivalent to Belgium—delivering real-time imagery and data for over 12 hours. The company recently integrated with NATO’s Maven Smart System during Exercise Steadfast Dart 26 in Germany, providing live video and geolocation to allied forces.
This funding accelerates fleet expansion, international growth into markets like North America, and development of a second-generation airship with multi-day endurance. Kelluu also advances its in-house geospatial AI platform, Kelluu AI Labs, trained on airship sensor data for digital terrain twins.
Following completion of two phases of NATO’s DIANA accelerator, the investment bolsters Europe’s defense capabilities amid hybrid threats, bridging gaps between drones and satellites for wide-area ISR in remote and contested environments. Dual-use applications extend to wildfire detection and infrastructure monitoring.