Ukraine battlefield use underpins €5.8 million raise for ZeroPhase's communications software | EU-Startups

ZeroPhase, a Munich-based company building software-defined, mission-proven data links for unmanned defense platforms, has raised €5.8 million in an oversubscribed Seed round to accelerate development and deployment of their adaptive communications layer – preserving sovereign control of critical links across air, land, and sea.

The round was led by BlueYard Capital, with participation from multiple Business Angels.

“Communication is the nervous system of defense, communication decides outcomes,” says Dr Florian Petit, CEO of ZeroPhase. “Our goal is to ensure it never fails. And with the support of Blueyard, we’re building adaptive data links that deliver uncompromising performance and reliability – adaptable across domains and mission types, forming the foundation of trusted connectivity for the unmanned systems of tomorrow.”

2025 has been home to a steady flow of early-stage capital into European defense, unmanned and autonomous systems, providing a useful benchmark for ZeroPhase’s Seed round.

In Germany, ARX Robotics (Munich) raised around €11 million to scale autonomous unmanned ground vehicles, while Project Q (also Munich) secured €7.5 million to expand its defense interoperability and sensor platform – making Germany a clear focal point for defense-oriented funding this year.

Elsewhere in Europe, Rift (Paris) raised €4.6 million to develop on-demand aerial reconnaissance networks, Orbotix (Warsaw) closed a €6.5 million round to advance autonomous defence systems, and Monopulse (Denmark/Lithuania) received €1.12 million to expand NATO-grade UAV capacity. Spain-based Fuvex added a further €1.7 million to develop long-range autonomous aerial systems.

Taken together, these EU-Startups-covered deals represent approximately €32 million invested into adjacent defence and unmanned technology segments in 2025, before accounting for ZeroPhase’s raise.

Within this context, ZeroPhase’s funding aligns with a broader pattern of capital moving into complementary layers of the unmanned stack – from platforms and autonomy to communications and interoperability – with a notable concentration of activity in Germany but growing momentum across multiple European defense ecosystems.

“ZeroPhase’s technology has proven to be a key enabler. Its adaptive protocol, when integrated into our custom-developed UAV systems and deployed by our expert field teams, has allowed us to maintain communications in the most extremely jammed environments on the frontline – areas where other drones simply cannot fly,” according to UAV Operations Lead, Ukraine.

Unmanned defense systems rely on robust, low-latency communication to transmit video, telemetry, and command data under demanding conditions. According to the company, the number of these systems in operation is expected to exceed 4.5 million units in Ukraine alone in 2025, making secure and stable data links more critical than ever.

ZeroPhase’s data links dynamically adapt to jamming, interference, and signal degradation-ensuring mission continuity and trusted, sovereign connectivity where “failure is not an option“.

Founded in 2025, ZeroPhase’s technology is already deployed at scale, operating daily in Ukraine and supporting thousands of unmanned missions. The company outlines that it is their extensive field use under real combat conditions that has validated the company’s ability to maintain high-performance communication even under electronic attack and degraded network conditions.

Experts estimate that today’s electronic-warfare systems can disable unprotected drone communications in a matter of seconds – highlighting the critical importance of secure and adaptive data-link technology.

“At BlueYard, we back technologies that move us toward utopia and those that hold the line against oblivion,” said Michael Wax, Partner at BlueYard Capital. “ZeroPhease does both. By securing the invisible layer that allows unmanned systems to communicate and coordinate, they help ensure that free societies can act with confidence. Their systems already prove it daily in Ukraine – built by a team whose clarity, rigor, and purpose deeply impressed us.”

With this new funding, ZeroPhase will expand its engineering and signal-processing teams, deepen partnerships across the European defense and aerospace ecosystem, and extend its adaptive communication framework to additional mission profiles and operational domains.