Defense startup, named after the founder's brother who fell in Lebanon, raises $41 million

The Israeli defense-tech company AITAN, formerly eyesAtop, announced the completion of a $41 million funding round. The round was led by Deep33 and Dell Technologies Capital, bringing the total capital raised by the company to $54 million.

"With the outbreak of the Swords of Iron war, it was clear to us that the only goal before us was to help our friends and family members win and return safely from captivity and the battlefield," said Udi Oster, co-founder of AITAN. "Three years later, with our technology already having a broad operational impact on the ground, this is the right time to expand our scope and bring these capabilities to Israel's allies around the world."

AITAN develops AI-based combat systems for robotics and unmanned vehicles. According to the company, the systems have been in operational use since October 7, designed to enable robotic forces to perform complex combat missions and reduce the exposure of soldiers to risk. The company says its systems are in daily, large-scale use in the IDF and the Ministry of Defense, having accumulated more than half a million operational flight hours.

According to the company, the system upgrades civilian drones to operational drones with resilient navigation capabilities and AI applications, offers a universal controller that connects to various types of drones and robots, and enables the management of multi-robot and drone operational missions through a unified command interface for the commander. The company presents this move as a new category called "Robotic Sovereignty-as-a-Service," designed to allow countries to maintain control over technology, production, supply chains, and operational readiness.

The round also included participation from Gokul Rajaram, a board member at Coinbase and Pinterest, Benjamin Ling of Bling Capital, and Kevin Weil of Scribble Ventures. The funds will be used for continued product development, expanding international operations, and growing AITAN's global team.

AITAN was founded by Udi Oster and Daniel Almog, who met during their service as officers in Unit 8200. Later, the two founded Tapingo, an online ordering platform acquired by Grubhub. Or Levy, who was kidnapped from the Nova party, was one of the first engineers at the previous company founded by Oster and Almog called Zetz; his wife Einav was murdered in the "death shelter." In September 2024, Oster's younger brother, Eitan Oster, who served as a captain in the Egoz unit, fell during the IDF's ground maneuver in Lebanon. The company is named AITAN in his memory.

Recently, AITAN won a joint tender to develop the IDF's command and control platform for the next generation of attack drone arrays, as well as major design contracts for robotic weapon systems. According to the company, many of its employees are reservists and veterans of the security establishment, and the system is updated regularly based on feedback and experience from operational activity in the field.

"We are happy to invest in AITAN alongside Dell Technologies Capital because we believe that the AITAN team brings exceptional operational experience, based on which a platform has been developed that can serve Israel and its allies," said Lior Proshaur, managing partner at Deep33. "Robotic warfare is becoming a central part of countries' ability to maintain their security independence, and more and more of them understand that they must develop and maintain these capabilities themselves."

"We believe that Physical AI will be one of the most significant technological fields in the coming decade," said Yair Snir, managing partner at Dell Technologies Capital. "One of the main challenges on the way there is the ability to connect complex autonomous systems and enable them to act together in a coordinated manner, even in complex field conditions. The technology they have developed has already proven itself in defense environments on the ground and illustrates the growing importance of these capabilities."