Gallium Defense's $7.6M Bet: Making Drone Detection Affordable for Everyone

Jan de Vries · 2026-11-02

You know that feeling when you see a problem everyone complains about, but nobody actually fixes? That's exactly what Gallium Defense is tackling. The Paris-based startup just stepped out of stealth with a €7.1 million seed round (that's about $7.6 million) to make drone detection affordable. And honestly, it's about time. ### The Problem: Drones Are Cheap, Defense Is Not Drones are everywhere now. You can buy one for a few hundred bucks and fly it into restricted airspace. But the systems designed to detect them? Those cost a fortune. According to Gallium, over 80% of critical infrastructure sites and military assets are sitting ducks because they can't afford field-ready radars. That's a huge gap. Gallium's founders saw this firsthand. Eric Fournier spent 17 years at Boston Consulting Group advising defense and aerospace leaders. Florian Lemoine brings over 15 years in defense, including a stint as an adviser to NATO SACT. Robin Mandel has 15+ years across industry and consulting at Thales, BCG, and Safran. These aren't rookies. ### The Solution: Radar That Doesn't Break the Bank Their flagship product is the GDS-10, an X-band AESA radar with a software-defined, AI-native architecture. Sounds fancy, but here's the gist: it detects Class 1 and FPV drones up to 6.2 miles away. It gives you 360° azimuth coverage and 90° elevation coverage with no blind spots. It can track multiple drones at once—even swarms—day or night, in any weather. And because it's software-defined, it can evolve as new threats emerge. > "As drones proliferate, traditional radars are reaching their operational and economic limits. At Gallium Defense, we started from a blank sheet with a simple question, asked by operators in the field: how do you meet 80% of the need at 20% of the price?" – Eric Fournier, CEO and co-founder That question led to a radically rethought AESA radar architecture that uses commercial off-the-shelf components and embedded computing. The result? A radar that's designed to be manufactured and deployed by the hundreds, not one at a time. ### Who's Backing This? The round was led by Keen Venture Partners and 360 Capital, with participation from Omnes Capital and Polytechnique Ventures. The announcement timed nicely with European Defence Week 2026 in Paris. Alexander Ribbink, General Partner at Keen Venture Partners, said: "Great defence starts with superior visibility. Gallium Defense has the team, the industrial partners and the cost model to make drone detection a standard layer at every critical site – the kind of European capability our fund is proud to back." ### What's Next? Just four months after closing the seed round, Gallium conducted its first open-air field trials. The funding is being used to industrialize production, grow the team, train AI models, and run demos for civil and military operators worldwide. They plan to open orders for the GDS-10 in Q1 2027. So what does this mean for the rest of us? If Gallium pulls this off, drone detection could become as standard as a security camera at your local mall. And that's a future worth watching.