Munich-based SE3 has raised $30 million in a Series A round led by Accel, with Keen, Lakestar and Seedcamp participating; the raise comes five months after the company emerged from stealth with a €5.5 million seed round.

SE3 builds platform-agnostic spatial-intelligence software that combines camera and sensor data into a shared 3D picture, helping autonomous drones and ground vehicles understand their surroundings and coordinate routes and behavior.

Its onboard AI also supports GPS-denied navigation and object detection, and can coordinate drones; the software runs on local computers so systems can keep operating when satellite navigation is disrupted.

Rather than sending raw sensor feeds directly to a general-purpose language model, SE3 organizes the information with computer vision and lets models query it through tools such as flight-planning algorithms; the system can operate offline and require human approval for actions such as takeoff.

SE3 sells software that works alongside equipment from different manufacturers instead of building vehicles, an approach aligned with defence procurement’s push for modularity and interoperability, including the Modular Open Systems Approach and Germany’s MOSABw programme.

The company argues that proprietary software tied to individual drone makers can create interoperability problems and vendor lock-in, while its software is designed to work across hardware suppliers.

SE3 says it has shipped thousands of systems over the past two years and is deployed in Ukraine, while working on multiple contracts with Ukraine and Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr.

Its partners include defence prime HENSOLDT and scale-ups Auterion and ERC System; the software runs on Auterion’s Skynode computers.

The higher-level AI used to command fleets is less mature than the deployed navigation technology: SE3 is developing and demonstrating it with Germany’s armed forces, with substantial work still ahead over the next one or two years.

SE3 plans to use the funding to hire across engineering, commercial and operations teams, fulfil existing contracts and expand in Germany and Ukraine, while opening a UK office and pursuing opportunities elsewhere in Europe.

The company grew out of a computer vision lab at the Technical University of Munich and was founded by Lukas Köstler, Simon Klenk and Daniel Cremers; it has about 45 employees and aims to reach roughly 120.

Defence is expected to remain SE3’s focus in the near term, while the company plans to explore civilian applications such as robotics and emergency response from 2027.