Paris-based Gallium Defense announced a €7.1 million seed round on November 2, 2026, as it came out of stealth, according to Tech Funding News (TFN), Vestbee and Startup Rise. Keen Venture Partners and 360 Capital co-led the round, with Omnes Capital and Polytechnique Ventures also taking part. Vestbee also mentions unnamed strategic partners. TFN says the money is for a first production run of its radar, team growth, AI model training and demonstrations for civil and military customers.

Company and founders

Gallium was founded in April 2026, according to its website, by Eric Fournier (CEO), Florian Lemoine (CTO) and Robin Mandel (COO). The company says Fournier spent 17 years advising defense and aerospace leaders; Startup Rise adds that this was at Boston Consulting Group, and TFN says he worked on several French radar projects. Lemoine has more than 15 years in defense and previously advised NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, per the company. Mandel has more than 15 years in industry and consulting, including defense-industry operations; Startup Rise names Thales, BCG and Safran. TFN reports a team of 15, expected to reach 17 by the end of the year.

The GDS-10 radar

Vestbee and TFN describe the GDS-10 as an X-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar with a software-defined architecture built to support AI integration. It comes in two versions, one for critical-infrastructure operators and one for armed forces. TFN lists these company claims: detection of Class 1 and FPV drones out to 10 km, 360° horizontal and 90° vertical coverage, tracking of several targets at once including drone swarms, and operation day and night, in any weather and under electronic jamming.

Gallium says it keeps cost down with lower-cost antenna components and processing built onto the antenna. No price has been disclosed; TFN's summary says its cost is comparable to alternatives with much shorter ranges. Startup Rise quotes Fournier describing a question he says operators asked: “how do you meet 80% of the need at 20% of the price?” It quotes Mandel: “Our radars are designed to be manufactured and deployed by the hundreds, not one at a time.”

Timeline and customers

Vestbee reports that outdoor field testing has started and that the company plans monthly demonstrations for civilian and military operators, with orders expected to open in Q1 2027. The company website dates the first open-air GDS-10 trials to October 2026. TFN reports that Gallium has no revenue yet and is in talks with six potential customers, and that Fournier projects orders of about €6 million in 2027 if those talks go well. Fournier says the product already works and that the remaining work is machine learning, which needs field time to train the algorithms, according to TFN.

Sources and notes

Sources: Tech Funding News, Vestbee, Startup Rise and the Gallium Defense website. Lens also reviewed an investor's LinkedIn announcement, which gives the same round, product range, trial and order timing. The product specifications are company claims, and none of the sources reports independent test data. The company website lists the seed round as closing in June 2026 and a Bpifrance DeepTech label in September 2026. It names its investors as 360 Capital, Keen Ventures, Omnes Capital and Polytechnique Ventures and does not designate a lead, while the press coverage names Keen Venture Partners and 360 Capital as co-leads. TFN says research and development began in 2024, while the website dates the company's founding to April 2026. Startup Rise spells the name “Gallium Defence” in its headline. Related: European defense startups raised $7.4 billion through Sept. 20, 2026.

Image: Advanced Technology Demonstrator radar antenna array 01.jpg by NOAA, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. It shows the flat-panel antenna array of a NOAA phased-array weather radar demonstrator, photographed in September 2018. Illustrative photo; it does not show Gallium's radar.