Why We Invested in ARX Robotics: Building the Future of European Defense Infrastructure

Today, we’re proud to announce Speedinvest’s investment in ARX Robotics, a next-generation defense tech company building modular, AI-enabled unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) for autonomous land operations. This marks our first direct investment in a defense-first startup and a foundational moment in our long-term commitment to backing Europe’s next generation of strategic technology companies.

Founded in 2022 by Marc Wietfeld, Stefan Roebel, and Maximilian Wied, ARX is building at the forefront of the European defense landscape, with full control of its supply chain and strong technology integration.

With an exceptional team, including former German Armed Forces officers, ARX has already raised significant capital and is set to redefine ground operations.

Building the Next Generation of UGVs

Modern warfare is shifting to autonomy, data, and resilience. The ground domain is no exception. UGVs are becoming vital assets across logistics, surveillance, force protection, and casualty evacuation. Yet most ground systems remain rigid, hard to scale, and disconnected from modern software capabilities.

ARX is addressing this with a new approach to defense infrastructure. Their Gereon platform delivers modular UGVs designed for multi-mission flexibility. Powered by Mithra OS, ARX’s proprietary AI-based operating system, these vehicles enable real-time coordination, adaptive mission control, and autonomous decision-making in complex environments.

It’s not just about unmanned systems, but intelligent systems built with software-first architecture, powered by AI, and deployable at scale using a fully European supply chain.

ARX is already trusted by six European armed forces, including in Ukraine, and is helping militaries retrofit existing fleets while expanding the capabilities of new autonomous ground operations. At the intersection of security-critical infrastructure, technological innovation, and geopolitical reality, the key companies of the next decades are emerging, and ARX stands as a prime example of a future sector winner.

Forging Europe's Autonomous Defense Future

Europe is at a strategic inflection point. Geopolitical risk is rising, military needs are evolving, and technologies like AI and autonomy are becoming central to operational advantage. Yet Europe’s defense ecosystem still depends heavily on legacy platforms and non-European suppliers.

Between 2014 and 2024, EU defense spending rose by $145 billion, according to the European Defense Agency. In 2024 alone, the EU spent $98 billion on defense hardware and $14 billion on defense software. A growing share of this budget is moving toward autonomous systems, software-defined platforms, and AI. The challenge is not just procuring smarter systems; it’s building them in Europe, for Europe. Our own views on European tech sovereignty have been outlined in our Build in Europe series, calling for the continent to become strategically capable of operating as a stronger unit.

ARX is answering that call. Their software-defined UGVs offer the flexibility, speed, and cost-efficiency modern militaries demand. With AI at the core of the stack, they’re not only automating physical tasks but also unlocking real-time, intelligent responses to unpredictable environments.

Investing in Home-Grown Sovereign Technologies

Speedinvest has long believed that Europe’s resilience depends on its ability to build sovereign, high-performance technologies in dual-use, infrastructure, and the defense sectors.

Over the past few years, we’ve backed more than a dozen companies across autonomous mobility, energy resilience, cybersecurity, and AI, being ranked by Sifted in 2024 as one of the ten “Most Active Seed Investors in Defence, Security & Resilience in Europe." These investments include startups such as KETS Quantum Security (chip-based quantum-safe encryption hardware enabling ultra-secure communications), Orus (high-resolution hyperspectral space imagery services), and Dronamics (cargo drone airline).

From securing critical infrastructure against cyberattacks to ensuring manufacturing independence in a volatile global supply chain, the challenges we face today are multifaceted and urgent.

By leveraging its technological prowess and fostering a vibrant home-grown sovereign tech ecosystem, the continent can safeguard its values, protect its citizens, and secure its place on the global stage.

At Speedinvest, we view these technologies across four core pillars: 

• Societal Resilience – from cyber to information defense. 

Societal resilience means protecting Europe’s critical infrastructure, economies, and democratic systems from increasingly sophisticated hybrid and information-based threats. This will require AI-driven technologies that monitor and defend both civilian and military domains.

• Manufacturing Sovereignty – from critical materials to autonomous production.

Europe must rebuild the capacity to produce critical defense technologies independently, especially in times of prolonged conflict. That means securing supply chains, processing key materials locally, and investing in scalable, cost-efficient manufacturing powered by sovereign energy.

• Rapid Hardware Innovation – particularly in robotics, sensors, and field-ready systems

The battlefield is shifting toward scalable, low-cost hardware, sensors, and AI that enable “smart mass” and economic asymmetry. Future defense systems must be designed to outmatch expensive legacy equipment with affordable, adaptable, and rapidly deployable technologies.

• Autonomous Battle Networks – the AI-enabled backbone of modern command and control

Autonomous battle networks fuse software, AI, and sensors to deliver real-time battlefield awareness and coordinated command across all assets. These systems must be deeply integrated, interoperable, and resilient to cyber and electronic warfare to ensure operational continuity in contested environments.

ARX sits across many of these pillars.

Their AI-powered operating system and modular hardware architecture are redefining how autonomous land systems are developed, deployed, and adapted over time. As defense doctrine evolves toward distributed systems and “smart mass,” ARX’s platform offers the scalability and intelligence needed to meet that moment.

Intelligent, Modular, Made in Europe

Defense is no longer just about equipment. It’s about systems that think, adapt, and scale. That requires new kinds of companies, and new kinds of investors willing to engage deeply with founders on technical, regulatory, and strategic levels.

To the ARX team, we’re proud to join you on this mission.  

Let’s build the future of defense: intelligent, modular, and made in Europe.