The NATO Innovation Fund alongside the UK’s NSSIF invested in Kraken, a UK-based uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) company that pioneers cost-effective, open-architecture USVs at sea or surveillance, force protection, and multi-domain operations. This investment, which will be used to support Kraken’s manufacturing activities, R&D, international scaling and rapid prototyping, marks the NATO Innovation Fund’s third investment in an autonomous systems company and will help us deliver autonomous capabilities to the Alliance across air, land, and sea.

Kraken’s modular, scalable, production-ready platforms offer a compelling solution – enhancing naval capabilities at lower cost with reduced risk to personnel. Driven by rising global tensions, the growing threat to subsea infrastructure and the need to secure vital sea lanes, Kraken is already delivering scale production orders to NATO countries from its state-of-the-art facilities in Hampshire, which have been supported by recent strategic investments from a range of international private and public organisations. These investments align with a growing shift in global capital markets towards investment across European and British manufacturing.

The company’s current lineup includes K3 SCOUT, a high-performance low-cost uncrewed surface vessel designed with a fully modular payload bay. The K3 SCOUT Medium is in use on operational exercises with NATO.

Kraken’s range also includes the K4 MANTA, uncrewed surface subsurface capability delivery platforms; and K5 KRAKEN, maritime precision engagement gunships. Each is designed for modular deployment across a spectrum of maritime and coastal operations.