Eikolos, an Israeli dual-use startup, is developing optical camera communication applications that allow humans and machines to interact in new ways. One of its first applications is helping the military detect whether drones are friends or foes. (see the image).
The company, which launched in 2023, just months before Israel’s current war started, envisions many more applications for its technology, including allowing people to communicate with others directly via their AI-powered AR glasses; increasing road safety by enabling cars to emit data that explains that they are about to brake or change lanes; and providing context inside crowded conferences, allowing individuals to just gaze around the room and see details about the people who opt-in to clearly understand who they should approach.
Eikolos embodies several trends: Governments are scrambling to incorporate the most advanced AI, communications and drone technologies into their weapons and defense systems; they are increasingly sourcing these from the commercial market; and these technologies often have multiple use cases, blurring the lines between the defense and tech sectors.
Innovations traditionally came out of government labs. The role of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the origins of the Internet is a famous example. But the 2000s saw the rise of tech giants and startups that invest heavily in innovations that can be relevant for defense purposes. As a result, governments are increasingly turning to the commercial sector and venture capitalist interest has surged in startups developing satellite imagery, AI, space tech, cybersecurity and autonomous robotics and other defense tech.
Rising geopolitical tension, the growing need to diversify the defense supply base and the priorities of the incoming Trump Administration are combining to create a better outlook than ever before for the defense sector, Mike Brown, a partner at Shield Capital, a U.S. venture firm specializing in defense tech, wrote in a recent article. Brown, a former director of the U.S.’s Defense Innovation Unit, a branch of the Pentagon that aims to identify and accelerate the adoption of technologies built in Silicon Valley that would enhance the military’s capabilities. cites Anduril, Palantir and SpaceX as examples of companies with multi-billion dollar valuations that have had success in military applications.
Companies in the category collected nearly $100 billion in VC funding from 2021 to now, a figure that’s about 40% higher than what was invested in the seven prior years combined, according to Pitchbook data.
The current positive landscape for defense tech investing in the U.S. builds on several developments during the Biden Administration, according to Brown. The Defense Innovation Unit, created to deliver more commercial technology to the Pentagon, now has a $1 billion budget . The Office of Strategic Capital now has the authority to make up to $1 billion in loans for component technologies, like batteries or quantum computing, important for national security. Last year, the Deputy Secretary of Defense announced the Replicator initiative with the goal of delivering thousands of attritable autonomous systems within 18 months and said recently that the Department appears on track to do so.
Europe is also spending billions on defense tech research, including new AI-powered smart weapons, more advanced drones and better radar technology.
In Israel the country’s Defense Research and Development Directorate (DDR&D) is working with 270 defense startups, many with dual-use applications. In addition to testing and buying technology from these startups the Israel’s DDR&D leads joint projects with some of the startups and helps them find dual-use cases in foreign markets. It works with 17 countries. India is a particularly good fit.
Eikolos is one of 10 startups participating in a new program called Dual Use Robust India Israel High-Tech Innovation or DRISHTI for short, a collaboration between Israel’s DDR&D (MAFAT) – Directorate of Defense Research & Development and the T-Hub accelerator in Hyderabad, which is being supported by the Motwani Jadeja Foundation. DRISHTI, derived from the Sanskrit word for “vision” or “insight” reflects the program’s mission to provide a forward-looking platform for innovation and strategic partnerships between India and Israel focused on dual-use technologies such as drones, robotics and AI.
Adapting To A Changing Battlefield
Identifying friends from foes has become a major challenge in the modern battlefield, with the mass adoption of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs.) In the absence of a reliable real-time method to distinguish between friendly and enemy drones, forces are unable to selectively neutralize threats, leading to the downing of friendly drones and failure to eliminate threatening drones, says Eikolos CEO Ofir Nichtern.
The Israeli startup has developed a solution based on an optical transmitter with unique ID for each friendly drone and UAV, wirelessly transmitted from the drone and picked up by an integrated camera receiver. The solution allows military forces to clearly see on their display who is a friend and who is a foe. Ground forces need only point the camera receiver to an area of interest to instantaneously locate and identify a transmitter carrying objects within the field of view. The solution supports dynamic use-cases, where both the transmitter and receiver are in motion. The lightweight transmitter can be easily integrated and carried even by a small drone transmitting a user defined ID. The camera receiver can be either handheld or fixed to a ground platform.
The same technology can be used for a whole variety of other applications, says Nichtern. For example, AI-powered augmented reality (AR) glasses could one day replace smart phones, he says. Eikolos envisions future generations of AR and smart glasses featuring the ability to spatially and directly communicate with other similarly enabled devices within view. This “glasses-to-glasses” communication could be achieved through two innovative approaches: integrating a unique camera sensor with optical communication capabilities at the silicon level or incorporating Eikolos’ proprietary sensor design into existing camera architectures, enabling standard cameras to capture spatial information from their surroundings. Devices like Ray-Ban Meta glasses “ could significantly benefit from this advancement, fostering seamless and direct social interactions,” he says.
Shorter term applications for Eikolos’ technology include using the transmitter system on drones to easily locate the position of troops, police or security guards on the ground. To make the system work the people on the ground would need to be outfitted with small camera receivers that fit on their shoulders on their hats. Similar technology could be used as a building block in future autonomous vehicles, improving on Lidar technology by not only identifying objects but communicating about them. An IP software component identifies pixels receiving optical data and decodes the light back into digital information, allowing for the correlation of objects with the data they emit. Yet another use case is air traffic control once air taxis become mainstream, he says.
Elsight, another member of the DRISHTI cohort, has developed beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) solutions not just for drones but any use case where continuous communication is mandatory, such as maritime applications or sidewalk robot delivery. Elsight was founded by two ex-Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers from the Israeli intelligence community. It’s first products were focused on the world of audio and video transmission. Following success in this area with the defense and homeland security sectors within Israel, Elsight launched a successful IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2017. In 2019, the company started to shift its focus to the unmanned market. The biggest milestone was when Elsight launched their flagship product, the Halo, a BVLOS connectivity solution for drones and other unmanned vehicles in 2020. Halo bonds up to four LTE and 5G cellular links, as well as RF and SatCom connections, into one secure VPN pipeline, connecting drone and ground control station with an unbreakable link that can provide connection 24/7.
Today Elsight has become the market leader in BVLOS communication solutions, and has partnered with over 100 different drone, UAV, and ground platform manufacturers and operators who are all using the Halo as their connectivity solution, in many cases embedding the Halo in the design of the platform and proceeding to regulatory certification of their platform with the Halo onboard. Some of Elsight’s customers include DroneUp, SpeedBird Aero and numerous others in the United States, Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia.
Only 5% of its revenues was in defense until a year and a half ago, says CEO Yoav Amitai. The core of its business is providing reliable communication services for everything from disaster recovery and transport of medical supplies to power line inspection and B2C delivery of Walmart orders in the U.S. under a partnership with DroneUp. It also works with defense organizations, such as Lockheed Martin, and the DDR&D in Israel. And, through the DRISHTI program, it looking to expand its business in India, which includes both some commercial and some paramilitary applications.
The drone and its components industry can significantly strengthen India’s manufacturing potential $23 billion approximately by 2030, according to an EY report entitled “Making India the Drone Capital of the World by 2030.”
“It is an interesting market for us,” say Amitai. “We are looking to cooperate with partners to see what we can do together.”
Necessity Is the Mother Of Invention
Some of the companies in the DRISHTI cohort developed their innovations directly in response to Israel’s current war.
Take the case of Rogat Engineering. When terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza on October 7, 2023, the Israeli company, which was launched in 1999 and specializes in state-of-the-art system engineering and robotic solutions, received a phone call. It was given one week to develop the first robot that could be dropped into small openings and explore and communicate back what it is seeing. It met the deadline. “Special forces are using it right now and it is so sensitive that we don’t even know all the use cases,” says vice-president Raanan Volk.
Now the company, part of DRISHTI’s first cohort, is exploring dual-use cases for its “multiarticulate” rugged robot. Some are more obvious than others. Rescue missions that require exploration and communicating with earthquake victims buried under rubble or trapped miners are clearcut use cases, as is the use by firefighters to see if people are trapped in buildings or contaminated disaster areas and communicate with them. Other applications are surprising. “We found during our visit to India that such robots are needed to clean air conditioner tubes that get very dirty and need to be cleaned from the inside,” says Volk. “This is just the beginning. We are looking to find partners and funding for further development and marketing the platform and more use cases.”
OptiDefense, another member of the DRISHTI cohort, has developed an innovative light-blade laser system that can shut down attack drones, even in urban environments.
The original system was developed by high tech entrepreneur Dr. Udi Ben Ami and Prof. Amiel Ishaaya from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, after incendiary balloons started being launched into Israel from Gaza in 2018, setting fire to farmland and causing widespread damage. With the help of academic and industry laser experts and with the backing of border police commander Yaakov (Kobi) Shabtai, they developed the “Lahav-Or”, or “Light Blade” defense system. They created the company OptiDefense with a very low budget to develop a prototype within less than one year. The system was later used to down explosive balloons traveling across the border from Gaza.
But, notes Ishaaya, you can’t build a business out of downing balloons. So, OptiDefense has turned its attention to downing attack drones ,which are a problem for Israel in the current war, and are becoming increasingly common threats all over the world. It is not possible to simply downscale the same technology used to down missiles. Downing drones needs a special approach. To operate most high-powered laser defense systems, the airspace needs to be cleared for many kilometers around, so the laser does not accidentally blind anyone, he explained. “We use a different kind of laser. The wavelength can’t reach the retina, only the cornea, so it can’t blind people. This is what distinguishes our system from that of other companies. We are more eye safe and can operate in densely populated areas,” says Ishaaya. “Our system operates on a lower frequency which makes it safe for urban environments.”
That’s important because these days threats from drones are not limited to times of war. “Drones are everywhere, anyone can buy them” says Ishaaya. And there is little to prevent someone from using a drone dropping a hand grenade or mass destruction materials into a crowded stadium. “The threat exists all the time now, he says. “The recent wars in Ukraine and Israel demonstrate how much harm these drones can do.”
Even drones that are not armed for attack can cause havoc. For examples In December 2018, hundreds of flights were cancelled at Gatwick Airport near London, England, following reports of drone sightings close to the runway, at a cost of millions of dollars. And, in November of 2024 reported drone activity in the U.S. prompted at least one airport – New York’s Stewart International Airport – to temporarily close its runways for about an hour and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio was restricted because of drone activity while authorities monitored the situation.
OptiDefense says laser systems protect strategic areas so it is well suited for guarding important assets such as airports, packed stadiums, oil refineries, nuclear plants and air bases. It is currently developing a large drone interceptor system that it hopes to sell to both defense and commercial clients. Trials are scheduled for this summer. Four countries have already expressed interest, he says. OptiDefense is currently fundraising so that it can scale its technology. It hopes to find both investors and clients in India and all over the world through the DRISHTI program, he says.
From Battlefields To Boardrooms
Previous military inventions that we use every day include the Internet, GSP Satellite navigation and the microwave. As the DRISHTI companies illustrate, more innovations are likely to make their way from the defense sector into businesses and people’s everyday lives.
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