Project Q Secures €7.5M to Advance European Defense Intelligence Platform

The urgent need for integrated battlefield intelligence in an era of drone swarms and cyber threats has fueled a major investment in European defense tech. Project Q, a Berlin-based startup, has secured €7.5 million in seed funding to accelerate the development of its Q-Open Source Platform (Q-OSP), a unified intelligence platform designed to fuse fragmented military data streams. The round was led by early-stage investor Project A, with participation from Expeditions Fund and Superangel.

This substantial seed injection, announced recently, will enable Project Q to scale its engineering team, refine its core technology, and initiate critical pilot projects with European armed forces and security agencies. The Q-OSP acts as a central nervous system for defense operations, integrating real-time data from diverse sources – including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ground sensors, legacy systems, and open-source intelligence – using artificial intelligence. The goal is to provide commanders with a comprehensive, real-time picture of the battlefield, drastically improving situational awareness and decision-making speed in mission-critical environments.

Solving the Data Deluge from Modern Battlefields

A key driver for Project Q’s platform is the exponential growth of data generated by modern unmanned systems, a trend starkly highlighted by the conflict in Ukraine. “Western militaries have significantly ramped up their adoption of unmanned systems, from UAVs to UGVs and beyond. But more hardware means more data, more sensors, and more fragmentation,” explained Uwe Horstmann, General Partner at lead investor Project A, in a statement accompanying the funding news. What Leonard and his team at Q are building is a game changer: a unified platform that fuses data across domains, integrates seamlessly with legacy infrastructure, and enables modern defence technologies to actually operate as a coherent system.

Project Q’s approach, termed the “Internet of Defence” (IoD), focuses on transforming commercially available technologies and existing military assets into interoperable systems. The Q-OSP serves as the crucial integration layer, allowing different sensors, platforms, and third-party datasets to communicate and work together effectively. This modular, software-defined solution promises to reduce deployment times from months to potentially days or weeks, offering a cost-effective alternative to monolithic, proprietary systems.

Bridging the Innovation Gap for European Sovereignty

Founded in 2024, Project Q emerged with a mission to bolster Europe’s technological sovereignty in defense. The founding team combines deep expertise in military operations, AI, and navigating complex government procurement processes. “Modern defence requires faster innovation cycles, and the transformation of siloed systems into an integrated network that can be leveraged on European scale,” stated Leonard Wessendorff, CEO & Co-Founder of Project Q. He emphasized the strategic partnership with the investors: “We’re excited to be partnering with such renowned and likeminded investors who support our mission to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty in the security and defense sector through scalable and interoperable solutions.”

Project Q’s early traction with European defense stakeholders signals a growing demand for agile, flexible platforms that can rapidly adapt to evolving threats and integrate new technologies. By focusing on interoperability and speed, the Berlin startup positions itself as a vital enabler for Europe’s evolving defense architecture, aiming to close critical gaps in situational awareness and operational effectiveness faced by military and security forces.

The successful seed funding for Project Q underscores a significant shift in European defense investment, prioritizing agile software platforms capable of unifying the complex, data-rich modern battlespace. The development and deployment of the Q-OSP intelligence platform represent a critical step towards enhanced operational coherence and strategic autonomy for European forces facing increasingly sophisticated threats. Follow Project Q’s progress as pilot programs with defense agencies commence.

Must Know

What is Project Q’s main product?
Project Q is developing the Q-Open Source Platform (Q-OSP), a military intelligence integration platform. It acts as a central hub, using AI to fuse real-time data from diverse sources like drones, ground sensors, and legacy systems. The goal is to provide unified situational awareness for defense and security forces, enabling faster, better-informed decisions in complex operational environments.

Who invested in Project Q’s seed round?
The €7.5 million seed funding round was led by Project A, a major European early-stage venture capital firm known for backing companies like Trade Republic and Quantum Systems. Additional investors include Expeditions Fund and Superangel, an early-stage fund also supporting the defense-focused Archangel VC fund. This combination brings deep tech investment expertise and defense sector knowledge.

What problem does the Q-OSP solve for militaries?
Modern militaries face severe data fragmentation due to the proliferation of sensors, especially from unmanned systems (UAVs, UGVs). Different systems often can’t communicate, creating data silos that hinder situational awareness. The Q-OSP solves this by integrating these disparate data streams and legacy infrastructure into a single, coherent intelligence picture, a challenge highlighted by recent conflicts.

What is the “Internet of Defence” (IoD) concept?
Coined by Project Q, the Internet of Defence refers to their approach of creating interconnected, interoperable defense systems. Similar to the Internet of Things (IoT) in the civilian world, the IoD framework aims to seamlessly link various military technologies – sensors, platforms, software – using open standards and APIs, enabling them to work together as a unified network rather than isolated components.

Why is this funding significant for European defense?
The investment signals strong confidence in European defense technology sovereignty. Project Q, based in Berlin, is focused on providing European forces with a scalable, interoperable platform built within the EU. This reduces reliance on non-European proprietary systems and aims to deliver faster innovation cycles tailored to specific European security needs and procurement structures.

What will Project Q use the €7.5 million funding for?
The primary uses of the seed capital are threefold: significantly scaling the engineering team to accelerate platform development; further refining the core Q-OSP technology, especially its AI-driven data fusion capabilities; and launching initial pilot projects and deployments with European armed forces and security agencies to validate the platform in real-world scenarios.