Seeing Systems
CPS 19Develops affordable, fully autonomous AI-powered drone systems for defense and high-stakes environments.
Seeing Systems presents a coherent product-market narrative targeting affordable, attritable FPV drones and EW-resilient operations for NATO-aligned defense customers, with YC W26 backing providing credibility and network access. However, the company is extremely early-stage (~5 employees, $500K funding, founded 2024) with no independently verified performance claims, no disclosed contracts, and its core autonomy software (Aerie AI) still in development — making it a high-risk, high-potential candidate that requires significant validation milestones before warranting stronger conviction.
Product-market fit narrative is tightly aligned with urgent defense needs: affordable UAS training (Bandit), attritable one-way effectors, and EW resilience (Banshee with fibre-optic guidance variant) — all lessons from Ukraine-era conflicts
Y Combinator W26 cohort membership provides access to mentorship, early-stage capital, and defense-tech investor networks that can accelerate go-to-market
Two named field trials (Operation Kull with Estonian/European Armed Forces, Operation Osprey with UK elite personnel) demonstrate early engagement with NATO-adjacent military customers
Banshee's fibre-optic guided variant, if validated, addresses a critical and growing pain point — RF jamming in contested EW environments — offering genuine differentiation in the FPV segment
Aerie AI's platform-agnostic, open-architecture approach to swarm coordination could become a high-margin software layer if it matures, shifting the business from hardware-only to a hardware+software model
Cost-focused, modular design philosophy is pragmatic for high-attrition environments and aligns with procurement trends favoring affordable, expendable systems over exquisite platforms
Key claims — 'battle-proven,' 'EW-immune' — are entirely company-asserted with no third-party testing data, independent after-action reports, or government validation provided in any available materials
Extremely small team (2-10 employees) creates acute risks in manufacturing scale-up, field support, defense procurement compliance, and parallel program execution
Aerie AI, the core software differentiator and potential margin driver, is explicitly labeled 'In Development' with no timeline for operational deployment
The FPV/loitering munitions market is highly fragmented with low barriers to entry — COTS components enable rapid imitation, and larger primes can out-scale manufacturing and support
$500K in funding is minimal for defense hardware development, testing, certification, and production — suggesting the company will need significant additional capital soon
No public financials, disclosed revenue, contract backlog, or unit volumes exist — making financial assessment essentially impossible
No independent validation of EW resilience claims — adversaries adapt quickly, and static 'EW immunity' claims rarely persist in practice
Severe capital constraints: $500K funding is insufficient for defense hardware production, testing, and certification at any meaningful scale
Team capacity bottleneck: 2-10 employees cannot simultaneously manage manufacturing, field support, compliance, and multiple defense customer engagements
Defense sales cycle friction: converting pilot evaluations (Kull, Osprey) into multi-unit procurement or framework agreements typically takes 12-24+ months
Fast-follower risk in a commoditizing FPV market where open architectures and accessible components enable rapid replication by better-resourced competitors
Aerie AI development risk: the core software differentiator has no disclosed timeline, demo results, or interoperability validation
Conversion of Operation Kull/Osprey field trials into formal procurement contracts or framework agreements with European/UK defense customers
Independent third-party or government lab validation of Banshee's EW resilience and fibre-optic guidance performance
Aerie AI progression from 'In Development' to field demonstration with measurable multi-drone coordination outcomes
Significant follow-on funding round (Series A or equivalent) enabling manufacturing scale-up and team expansion
Expansion into additional NATO-aligned markets or inclusion in formal defense innovation programs (e.g., DASA, EDF)