[Coming Soon] On the Edge: From the Front Line to the Frontier of Innovation, the French Startups building the future of defense
An exclusive dive into the French startups redefining the rules of defense. A 3-part mini-series, launching next week.
The peace dividend era is over.
As €10,000 drones destroy multi-million-euro systems, software agility is now superseding armored tonnage. Faced with this urgency, traditional defense contractors are being challenged by a new generation of founders.
Their credo? Mastering unprecedented agility from code to assembly line to deliver true operational superiority. Their impact zone? Directly on the frontline.
For several weeks, alongside Emma Caillat from Hexa, we met with the people building tomorrow’s European sovereignty. From bunker-like Parisian offices to Ukrainian operations, we spoke with:
Martin de Gourcuff — CTO, Harmattan AI
Hadrien Canter — CEO, Alta Ares
Arnaud Valli — Public Affairs Director, Comand AI
In this 3-part series, we will decode:
Ep. 1 | New Rules, New Players, New Game: How startups leverage software as the ultimate tool for operational superiority, iterating in weeks where traditional players take years.
Ep. 2 | Produce or Perish: The hardware puzzle and the hyper-dependence on foreign supply chains.
Ep. 3 | Coding the Red Line: Why more AI can paradoxically mean more ethics, how automation accelerates decision-making while keeping humans in the loop, and the race to become European defense’s true operating system.
Writing this piece forced us to confront a world often avoided out of moral reflex: the world of defense, its mechanisms, and its harsh realities. An opaque, sometimes uncomfortable world, but one that is more essential than ever to understand.
Because tomorrow’s threat is already here, and building our future security architecture urgently requires Europe’s best talents today.
Subscribe now to receive the first episode directly in your inbox next week!
This article is written in collaboration with Hexa Sprint. Hexa Sprint is a 6-month accelerator and investment program for pre-seed founding teams with an existing idea, providing up to €500K, hands-on support, and sector-focused guidance to help them grow in Defense, Climate, and AI for Work.
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