Vegvisir Pulls Iron Wolf Capital Backing for NATO Command Platform

Vegvisir, the Estonian defence technology company building command-and-control software for NATO’s multi-domain battlefield, has secured venture backing from Iron Wolf Capital, the Baltic Sea region’s most active defence-focused venture fund. The investment, announced June 29, 2026, will accelerate Vegvisir’s transition from product development into operational deployments and commercial scale across NATO member states.

Vegvisir’s pitch is to own the missing connective layer in allied warfare: a software-native, platform-agnostic interface that lets a single operator visualise and command manned and unmanned systems across ground, air, maritime, and sub-sea domains at the same time. Iron Wolf Capital Managing Partner Kasparas Jurgelionis called the transition to multi-domain unmanned operations “an irreversible shift in how the world operates,” and framed his fund’s conviction in Vegvisir as a wager that no incumbent has adequately built the layer NATO now needs.

Iron Wolf Capital’s Bet on the Allied C2 Layer

Vegvisir announced the Iron Wolf Capital investment on June 29, 2026, in Tallinn. The Tallinn-headquartered company, formally registered as Defensphere OÜ, said the capital will go to product development, integration with allied unmanned platform providers, and expanding the pipeline of commercial and government customers across NATO member states. The size of the round was not disclosed.

Vegvisir’s own statement frames the problem as one of fragmentation. “The absence of a unified, interoperable software layer capable of connecting, visualising, and commanding manned and unmanned systems across ground, air, maritime, and sub-sea domains at operational scale” is, in Vegvisir’s telling, “one of the most pressing unsolved problems in modern warfare.” Iron Wolf Capital backs that framing. The Vilnius-headquartered fund, which closed its second fund at €100 million and calls itself the largest seed-stage DeepTech fund in Baltic history, invests “where technology meets an irreversible shift in how the world operates.”

We invest where technology meets an irreversible shift in how the world operates. The transition to multi-domain unmanned operations is exactly that kind of shift, and it demands a software-native, platform-agnostic solution that no existing player has adequately built. Vegvisir has the architecture, the team, and the ambition to own that space.

The quote came from Kasparas Jurgelionis, Managing Partner at Iron Wolf Capital, in Vegvisir’s announcement of the Iron Wolf Capital investment. The deal extends a defence-portfolio thesis Iron Wolf has been building publicly since 2019, when the firm says it began investing in Baltic and Ukrainian defence technology founders.

The UFORCE comparison is the closest analogue. Iron Wolf participated in UFORCE’s $50M seed round led by Lakestar and Shield Capital, with the round valuing the company at over $1 billion and coverage labelling it as Ukraine’s first defence technology unicorn. Vegvisir sits on the software side of that same thesis, per Iron Wolf Capital’s portfolio and Baltic defence focus.

What Vegvisir’s Platform Is Built to Do

Vegvisir positions its software as the connective layer between operators and the spread of unmanned systems now entering allied service. The platform is software-native, platform-agnostic, and built around AI-driven detection and decision support, with the explicit goal of reducing cognitive load on operators managing assets across multiple domains simultaneously.

The company’s stated long-term ambition is large. “The single command interface through which all actors, assets, and decisions flow, regardless of origin or nationality” is how Vegvisir described the target state in its announcement, casting itself as the air-traffic-control equivalent for allied warfare. That framing matters because it positions Vegvisir against the proprietary, fragmented command architectures that today prevent allied unmanned systems from operating as a single force.

Vegvisir was founded in January 2021 by eight founders from Estonia and Croatia. The original product was a Mixed Reality Situational Awareness System designed for armoured vehicle crews who had themselves been “stuck in armoured vehicles in the middle of the battles in Afghanistan and other military deployments,” according to the company’s own history and team backgrounds. The product line, built around the names CORE, REMOTE, and NANO, grew out of that experience.

From that hardware-software base, Vegvisir has expanded into a Command & Control Solutions line aimed at multi-domain operations, with mixed-reality visual feeds, integration of thermal cameras and long-range sensors, and ruggedised head-mounted displays for front-line crews. The June 2026 investment is intended to fund that next step.

Milrem’s Väärsi and the Hardware-Software Co-Evolution

Vegvisir’s shareholder base already includes one of Europe’s most prominent builders of unmanned ground systems. Kuldar Väärsi, CEO of Milrem Robotics and described by Vegvisir as a key participant in NATO’s robotics and autonomous systems programmes, is a personal investor in the Estonian C2 software maker.

Milrem is building the software-defined robotic systems that future forces will depend on. Vegvisir is building the software layer that makes those systems operationally more capable and easier to adapt. My investment in Vegvisir has always reflected the belief that the future battlefield will be dominated by software-defined systems where different products and technologies will be interoperable through shared architecture.

The quote came from Väärsi in Vegvisir’s June 2026 announcement. His involvement reflects a wider thesis inside Vegvisir’s cap table that the hardware and software layers of the future battlefield must co-evolve, and that the Estonian and Baltic defence industrial base is capable of fielding both.

The Baltic Defence Tech Cluster Behind the Deal

Iron Wolf Capital’s investment places Vegvisir inside a small but rapidly thickening cluster of Baltic defence technology bets. The fund, founded in Vilnius in 2017, says it has invested in 30+ startups across defence, dual-use, photonics, robotics, AI, and other deep-tech categories since 2019, and counts itself among the most active defence-tech investors in Europe. ILTE, a Lithuanian state-established financial institution, sits as Iron Wolf’s cornerstone investor.

The fund’s recent defence bets illustrate the cluster:

• UFORCE: London-headquartered, Ukrainian-founded defence technology company that emerged from stealth with a $50M seed round led by Lakestar and Shield Capital, with Iron Wolf participating. The round valued UFORCE at over $1 billion and was described as Ukraine’s first defence technology unicorn.
• Onodrim Industries: another Iron Wolf defence technology investment, referenced in Vegvisir’s announcement as part of the fund’s “same thesis” on European founders operating close to the front line of the security environment.
• Vegvisir: the software-layer piece of the portfolio, joining hardware-heavy bets and adding the C2 connective tissue Iron Wolf has been hunting.

Estonia’s wider defence-tech context adds tailwind. NATO member states have committed to significant increases in defence spending, and allied procurement agencies are actively seeking interoperable, software-native command solutions capable of operating across multi-national force structures, Vegvisir said in its announcement. The company noted that Estonia is “one of NATO’s most digitally advanced and defence-committed member states,” and positioned itself at the centre of that demand. Defence technology has moved from a niche to a primary pillar of the Estonian economy, as captured in the Estonian Startup Awards coverage of defence tech’s growing role.

What the Software Layer Still Has to Prove

Vegvisir’s leadership team includes founders with direct defence procurement experience. CEO Ingvar Pärnamäe served as Undersecretary for Defence Investments at the Estonian Ministry of Defence, as National Armaments Director, as head of the Estonian National Security Authority, and as CEO of the Estonian Defence and Aerospace Industry Association before co-founding Vegvisir in 2021. Chief Technology Officer Ana Petrinec is a physicist with R&D and technical management experience; CPO Raido Saremat served 15 years in the Estonian Defence Forces with three Middle East and Africa deployments before moving to the defence industry.

The product’s stated ambitions are bigger than its current footprint. Vegvisir says it intends to make proprietary, fragmented command architectures obsolete, but it remains an early-stage software play whose NATO-scale ambition runs alongside undisclosed funding size, no public roster of NATO procurement wins, and a competitive field that includes much larger Western primes. Jurgelionis’s forecast that Vegvisir “can become one of the defining names in European defence technology” over the next decade is his prediction, not an outcome, and the open question is whether Vegvisir can convert Iron Wolf’s backing and Väärsi’s validation into alliance-wide adoption before a larger incumbent closes the window.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Vegvisir do?

Vegvisir (formally Defensphere OÜ) is an Estonian defence technology company that builds command-and-control software for the multi-domain battlefield, with the stated goal of letting a single operator coordinate manned and unmanned systems across ground, air, maritime, and sub-sea domains from a single interface.

Who is Iron Wolf Capital?

Iron Wolf Capital (IWC) is a Vilnius-headquartered venture capital firm investing in deep tech, AI, and defence technology across the Baltic Sea region and Ukraine. IWC closed its second fund at €100 million and says it has backed 30+ startups since 2019, with ILTE, a Lithuanian state-established financial institution, as its cornerstone investor.

What is multi-domain command and control?

Multi-domain command and control refers to the orchestration of military activities across multiple operational domains (land, air, sea, space, cyber) within a single, interoperable framework. NATO has been pursuing this concept as a response to increasingly complex operational environments and as a way to connect allied forces operating different national systems.

Who is Kuldar Väärsi and why does his backing matter?

Kuldar Väärsi is the founder and CEO of Milrem Robotics, an Estonian developer of unmanned ground vehicles that is a key participant in NATO’s robotics and autonomous systems programmes. His personal investment in Vegvisir signals alignment between Europe’s unmanned-vehicles hardware industry and Vegvisir’s software-layer ambitions, and ties Vegvisir’s roadmap to the platforms Milrem is shipping into NATO service.

Why is Estonia a centre for defence technology?

Estonia combines NATO frontline exposure on the alliance’s eastern flank with a digitally advanced economy, active government engagement in defence procurement, and a tightly networked cluster of defence technology founders. Vegvisir, Milrem Robotics, and a growing roster of Baltic peers operate from within that cluster, and the Estonian Startup Awards named defence tech a primary pillar of the Estonian economy at the January 2026 ceremony.