Quantum Systems and Stark founder Florian Seibel sits holding a drone.

Interview

July 2, 2024

VCs ‘all have this FOMO now’, says founder of AI drone startup Quantum Systems and weapons startup Stark

Florian Seibel, a German military vet, thinks there's hype around defence tech: "I could tell [some VCs] anything, and they would believe me. That is shocking to me"

Anne Sraders

6 min read

In 2015, Florian Seibel was fed up. He had spent the past 16 years in the German armed forces, and was frustrated with the military’s painfully-long procurement cycles. That’s why, when he founded Quantum Systems, a startup that builds AI-powered unmanned aerial surveillance drones, the plan back then was to focus on agricultural applications as “that was the use case” at the time. But in 2019 the company shifted to work on dual-use drones with military applications. 

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Anne Sraders

Anne Sraders is a senior reporter at Sifted, based in Berlin. She covers the venture capital industry and deeptech startups, including robotics, spacetech and defence tech. She also writes Sifted's weekly VC newsletter Up Round. Follow her on X and LinkedIn

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