The software running Dubai Police and Belgian Federal drones just raised €4.4M from Keen Venture Partners — TFN

Dutch drone software company AirHub has raised €4.4 million in a Series A round led by Keen Venture Partners, joined by Runway FBU — backed by Norway’s Aker Group — alongside existing investors Lumaux and LUMO Labs. Founded in 2016 and based in Valkenburg, AirHub builds a European-made platform for secure drone operations and already supports live operations for nine enterprise and government customers, including Dubai Police and the Belgian Federal Police.

“As Europe increases its focus on resilience, security and technological autonomy, AirHub is well-positioned to become an important software player in this space. The company has already proven its value in demanding operational environments, and we are excited to support the team in its next stage of growth,” said Giuseppe Lacerenza, Partner at Keen Venture Partners.

Platform and customers

AirHub’s core product, the Drone Operations Centre, covers the full operational lifecycle of drone missions: pre-flight planning and airspace approvals, weather checks and risk assessments, live flight oversight with video and command tools, and post-flight automated compliance reports, flight logs and incident records. The platform integrates with a wide range of hardware — including DJI controllers and iOS and Android devices — and can be deployed either on the company’s managed European cloud or self-hosted on a customer’s own systems, enabling data sovereignty for sensitive operations.

• Founders: co-CEOs Thomas Brinkman and Stephan van Vuren
• Series A: €4.4 million
• Lead investor: Keen Venture Partners; participants: Runway FBU, Lumaux, LUMO Labs
• Headquarters: Valkenburg, Netherlands; founded in 2016

AirHub lists nine enterprise and government live clients. Examples cited by the company include Dubai Police, Belgian Federal Police, Portuguese Bombeiros, Dutch Customs, ProRail, Securitas, Shell, Boskalis and Prosegur. Use cases range from Dutch Customs’ border surveillance and ProRail’s infrastructure inspections to the Austrian Power Grid’s security monitoring and offshore operations for Shell and Boskalis.

Product roadmap and market positioning

The fresh capital will back two new product lines: MilHub, tailored for defence operations, and SecHub, aimed at broader security requirements and introducing counter-drone capabilities. AirHub positions these lines to meet the compliance and sovereignty needs of European government and defence buyers — a niche the company says is underserved by competitors such as Flytbase and DroneSense, neither of which it claims is based in Europe or built on European cloud services.

AirHub’s pitch is grounded in shifting procurement requirements: as European governments and critical infrastructure operators increasingly write data sovereignty and resilience into tenders, the company argues there is demand for a locally hosted, compliant alternative to US- and China-hosted drone software stacks.

Outlook

The Series A comes as EU defence spending reached around €343 billion in 2024, roughly 1.9% of GDP, a figure AirHub and its backers expect will continue to grow and translate into procurement opportunities. With operational deployments already in demanding environments and a productised platform that spans pre-flight to post-flight requirements, AirHub aims to convert policy-driven buying decisions into contracts for its MilHub and SecHub offerings as states and operators prioritise technological autonomy and data control.