British uncrewed-boat maker Kraken Technology Group has raised $175m at a $1bn valuation, with the NATO Innovation Fund, the British Business Bank and Rheinmetall in the round and a Rheinmetall joint venture now building its K3 SCOUT boat in Hamburg. Rheinmetall MAN also took over Germany's InterRoC VII programme, pushing convoy autonomy that works when GPS is jammed. Ukraine's National Guard Omega unit is reported to have built an uncrewed boat to launch attack drones.

24JUL
Kraken raise makes Europe's newest defence unicorn
1 min read
12:50UTC
British uncrewed-boat maker Kraken Technology Group has raised $175m at a $1bn valuation, with the NATO Innovation Fund, the British Business Bank and Rheinmetall in the round and a Rheinmetall joint venture now building its K3 SCOUT boat in Hamburg. Rheinmetall MAN also took over Germany's InterRoC VII programme, pushing convoy autonomy that works when GPS is jammed. Ukraine's National Guard Omega unit is reported to have built an uncrewed boat to launch attack drones.
Key takeaway
State-backed funds and a prime just made a British robot-boat maker Europe's newest defence unicorn.
Different Perspectives
Thales
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University of Limerick
The University of Limerick tendered on 3 August, the morning this briefing published, for a single coastal and offshore autonomous surface vehicle to survey rather than fight. Where Belgium bought certainty on a cable, a research fleet buys endurance and area coverage, because a lost survey mission costs a re-run, not a casualty.
Ukraine's UGV manufacturers
Ukraine's UGV manufacturers, Trinity Robotics among them, have already run resupply and casualty-evacuation robots at a scale the US Army's new 18-month Project Sustainment award is only now attempting to match. Every month the American programme spends prototyping is a month a wartime supply base keeps compounding its lead in fielded units.
Ocean Infinity
Ocean Infinity's President of Solutions, Joe Robinson, said on 30 July that vessel Needlefish has logged more than 13,000 hours of continuous coastal security work in Kuwait since August 2025, an unaudited company claim. It is commercial security, not mine clearance, and not Omani waters, but the hours logged are real regardless.
Belgian Ministry of Defence
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American Rheinmetall
American Rheinmetall took the 18-month Project Sustainment prime slot on 31 July, fielding hybrid-powered autonomous resupply vehicles for company-sized element sustainment missions with Harbinger, Forterra and Primordial Labs, without disclosing a contract value. The award tests whether an Army acquisition office can match the production tempo Ukrainian UGV makers already run at industrial scale.