We've been selected for the third cohort of NATO DIANA — the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic. Out of more than 3,600 applications from across the Alliance, 150 companies were chosen this year. We're one of twelve teams joining the Estonian accelerator, run by Tehnopol Startup Incubator in Tallinn together with Sparkup Tartu Science Park.
Aereus was accepted under the Data Assisted Decision Making challenge — one of ten focus areas that NATO defined jointly across all Allied nations for this cohort. The challenge targets exactly the capability gap we've been building toward: helping military decision-makers process and act on complex data faster, with higher confidence, and at scale.
What DIANA offers
The programme is structured in two six-month phases. In Phase 1, every selected company receives €100,000 in non-dilutive contractual funding. The top performers advance to Phase 2 with up to an additional €300,000. Beyond the funding, DIANA provides access to over 200 test centres across the Alliance, a structured curriculum developed with MIT, and a mentorship network that connects deep tech startups with defence end-users.
What it means for Aereus
NATO DIANA is validation from the most significant defence innovation programme in the Alliance that our technology addresses a real, defined need. It gives us structured access to the end-users, testing infrastructure, and institutional networks that are notoriously difficult for startups to reach — and positions us within a peer group of 150 companies representing the cutting edge of dual-use technology across NATO.
The programme kicks off in January 2026. We'll be in Tallinn, building.
Aereus was selected for NATO DIANA's third cohort under the Data Assisted Decision Making challenge, joining the Estonian accelerator at Tehnopol in Tallinn.