Arkeus, a Melbourne defence technology company, raised A$25m (about $16.5m) in a Series A round, it announced on 15 May 2026. QIC Ventures, the venture arm of the Queensland government-owned investor, led the round.
New investors R+VC, Folklore Ventures and DYNE Ventures joined, alongside existing backers Main Sequence, Salus Ventures and Beaten Zone Venture Partners. Arkeus did not disclose a valuation. Startup Daily, citing Dealroom, reported a post-money valuation of around A$100m, roughly seven times what the company was worth at its seed round two years earlier. That figure is not from the company.
“This capital allows us to scale manufacturing and get capability into the field faster, while expanding across a broader set of platforms and customers.”Simon Olsen, CEO, Arkeus
What Arkeus builds
Arkeus describes its products as AI-powered sensing systems that act as the eyes and brain of autonomous platforms. They are designed to see, understand and act in real time, at the edge, in degraded or contested conditions where traditional sensors struggle. The company works on wide-area search, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance across air, land and maritime settings.
Startup Daily described the technology as hyperspectral imaging sensors paired with onboard AI, so that drones and other autonomous platforms can detect and track objects in real time. The same report said the systems are integrated with drones from AeroVironment, Textron, Tekever and Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary.
Startup Daily reported that the company was founded in a Melbourne garage in 2020 by chief executive Simon Olsen and aerospace engineer Jonathan Nebauer. It said they began after watching drone operators struggle with false positives while hunting drug operations in Colombia.
Contracts and earlier funding
Startup Daily reported that Arkeus is winning contracts from the US Department of War, beating US-based incumbents, and that it secured the Australian Army's Wide Area Airborne Surveillance Program in November 2025 to fit out the army's tactical drone fleet. These claims come from the media report rather than the company's funding announcement.
The company's earlier funding, according to the same report, was a $4.45m seed round in late 2023 and a $5m follow-on from existing investors in March 2025. The report did not say whether those figures are in Australian or US dollars, so they are not converted here. Arkeus's news page also lists a A$2.46m government grant for sovereign manufacturing, announced in July 2025.
What the money is for
Arkeus said the capital will accelerate global expansion, establish advanced manufacturing in Queensland and the United States, and get its systems into operational use faster across allied defence markets. Startup Daily said the money is going into a Queensland-based manufacturing and sustainment facility and a local team to serve Australian defence customers.
Olsen said the capital allows the company to scale manufacturing and get capability into the field faster while expanding across a broader set of platforms and customers.
Nick Capell, an investment director at QIC Ventures, said defence is moving towards software-defined, autonomous systems where sensing and decision-making at the edge are critical.
Context
Startup Daily noted that QIC Ventures led a Series A for Brisbane's ProcurePro the week before and had earlier committed A$130m through a mandate with the Brisbane syndicate TEN13. It also pointed to rising local interest in defence technology, including a A$1bn Advanced Capabilities Investment Fund the federal government is setting up with private venture capital.
The sources did not give Arkeus's headcount or total funding to date.
Company website: arkeus.com