PDKINEMATICS, a Lithuanian defence engineering company, has raised €2 million in seed funding to scale production of its precision guidance systems for drones. The company was co-founded by Rapolas Markevičius, a private equity professional who turned to defence work after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Simonas Stasevičius, an aerospace engineer. Their starting point was a practical gap: most drone-deployed munitions have no guidance system, and hitting a target accurately from altitude remains an unsolved problem at mass-production scale.
The timing reflects a wider shift in how European governments think about drone warfare. The EU's Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 includes the European Drone Defence Initiative as one of four strategic flagship programmes, alongside the Eastern Flank Watch, the European Air Shield, and the European Space Shield. Five European allies have agreed to jointly develop UAV-based strike capabilities, drawing on Ukrainian battlefield experience. What that experience looks like in practice became clear during NATO's Hedgehog 2025 exercises in Estonia, where a group of roughly ten Ukrainian soldiers, coordinating through drone-linked systems, mock-destroyed 17 armoured vehicles and carried out around 30 strikes in half a day against a NATO force of several thousand troops.
The seed round was co-led by Coinvest Capital, Lithuania's sovereign investment fund, and Iron Wolf Capital. Defence-focused angels and experienced technology founders also took part. Total funding raised now stands at €3 million.
About 300,000 drone-deployed munitions are dropped in Ukraine each month. Nearly all of them are unguided. That means operators are flying a high volume of missions with little confidence about where the munition will land. The guidance technology that does exist was built for large military aircraft and expensive programmes — systems that only major powers could afford to develop or buy. Adapting that science to work inside a cheap, mass-produced drone component is a genuinely different engineering challenge, and for a long time there was no affordable solution for it.
NATO is now under real pressure to change that. The European Drone Defence Initiative calls for an interoperable network of sensors, electronic warfare tools, and interceptor systems across member states, with initial operational capabilities expected by late 2026. Building that network is one part of the problem. Equipping it with accurate strike platforms is another.
"We started working on precision guidance for UAVs because the battlefield was demanding something that did not exist: precision at altitude, at the cost and form factor of a mass-produced drone munition. The most capable guidance science in history was developed for large aircraft and expensive programmes that only superpowers could afford. We are rebuilding it for the platforms that actually dominate today's battlefield, applying modern R&D on top of those proven guidance principles and packing them into manufacturable, deployable systems for modern UAV warfare. With this comes scale, deployment speed and cost-to-effect advantages for operators at significantly lower size and cost thresholds." — Rapolas Markevičius, CEO and Co-Founder of PDKINEMATICS.
The new capital will go toward scaling manufacturing and expanding deployments across Europe and Ukraine. On the product side, the company is working to bring two additional technologies to a minimum viable product stage before the end of 2026: a proximity fuse for engaging armoured targets, intended for use in loitering munitions and interceptors, and a suite of counter-electronic warfare components. Both respond to gaps identified through active operations in Ukraine.
PDKINEMATICS is also preparing its first naval deployment, with a NATO member state. That would extend the company's work beyond land-based drone platforms into maritime applications. Its stated longer-term goal is to supply precision guidance technology to NATO-aligned UAV manufacturers, connecting Ukrainian battlefield experience to European defence procurement chains.
"Precision-guided systems are the future of modern warfare. The PDKINEMATICS team combines entrepreneurial drive with deep engineering talent and moves at the speed this moment demands. They have earned credibility in Ukraine, and we believe it positions them to become a defining defence technology company for NATO allies." — Žygimantas Susnys, Founding Partner of Iron Wolf Capital.
The company was founded in Vilnius, Lithuania, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Markevičius and Stasevičius began developing precision-guided munitions for drones as a direct response to what they observed unfolding on the battlefield. Dominykas Rinkevičius came on board as co-founder and head of engineering in 2025.
The company's main product is Gannet, a guidance system built around what engineers call low-SWaP-C principles: small size, low weight, minimal power draw, and low cost. Gannet allows bomber-class UAVs to fly at up to 700 metres while maintaining strike accuracy — roughly six times the altitude achievable with unguided munitions. Operating at greater height reduces exposure to anti-drone systems. The system is also designed to resist electronic jamming, work across different drone types, and integrate with a new platform within four weeks of the initial agreement.
On the commercial side, PDKINEMATICS has signed a partnership with Bavovna.ai, one of Ukraine's larger bomber-class UAV manufacturers, and its systems are currently deployed in active battlefield conditions. In Europe, it has partnered with SiraLab, an Italian UAV manufacturer. The Gannet system was selected for Iron Wolf 2026, Lithuania's largest international military exercises.
Coinvest Capital co-led the round. It is Lithuania's sovereign VC fund, backed entirely by public money from the Republic of Lithuania and the European Union, and it co-invests alongside business angels and other private funds. The fund manages €44.3 million in committed capital and focuses on sectors of strategic national importance, including defence, deterrence, and dual-use technology.
Iron Wolf Capital co-led alongside Coinvest. Based in Vilnius, it backs deep tech and defence startups across the Baltic Sea region and Ukraine, and has invested in more than 30 companies since 2019. Its initial cheques range from €0.5 million to €5 million.
"Precision guidance is becoming the foundational capability of modern drone warfare, and PDKINEMATICS is building it at the cost and speed the market demands. … This is exactly the kind of company the Baltic defence ecosystem needs to be producing: deep technology, battle-validated, and with a clear path to NATO-scale deployment. We are proud to see a fellow defence-focused fund joining the round, and proud to back a team providing such an important contribution to Europe's defence directly from Vilnius." — Viktorija Trimbel, Managing Director of Coinvest Capital
