NATO DIANA companies showcased cutting-edge defense innovations in Estonia! ✨🇪🇪
On May 22, we held a product demo event for NATO DIANA Estonian Accelerator startups and Estonian defense companies, whose groundbreaking technologies aim to bolster NATO's defensive capabilities. Over 100 high-profile international defense experts, including the Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces, Martin Herem, gathered to witness these groundbreaking technologies and lay the groundwork for potential future collaborations.
Permanent Secretary of the Estonian Ministry of Defence, Kusti Salm, opened the event, stating: “The Ministry of Defence has been contributing for years to the development of innovative defence technology, and we were one of the pilot sites launching the NATO DIANA programme. I am very pleased to see the first results here. It is important for us that everything that is developed within the DIANA programme should support the improvement of NATO capacity by being useable on the battlefield, and that it should give us an advantage over our adversaries. That makes it particularly important that these solutions can be integrated with the existing defence industry ecosystem, and that they can be tested and get instant feedback.”
NATO DIANA companies, who proudly presented their deeptech dual-use solutions - REVOBEAM, AVoptics, Lobster Robotics, GaltTec, Dronetag, IceWind, Anzen, GIM Robotics, Goldilock. 👏
Stephen Kines, the CEO of Goldilock, said that they had not been fully aware of the dual-use potential of their solution before entering the NATO DIANA programme. “We have participated in some top accelerator programmes, but DIANA was unique in the quality of the programme content, the mentorship, and the exposure to stakeholders, which allowed us to develop our dual-use messaging and technology and so was fit for purpose. In particular, the Estonian Tehnopol team were incredible in their professionalism, ensuring that not only did we individually get the best out of the programme, but that the cohort members were able to work as a team to come up with joint solutions,” he said. Goldilock is developing a patented cybersecurity tool for protecting critical assets and data.
The product demonstration event of defense technology companies was held jointly with NATO DIANA Estonian Accelerator, the Estonian Defence and Aerospace Industry Association, and Invest in Estonia.