Askari develops hand‑launched, fully autonomous hit‑to‑kill interceptors designed for dismounted operators; its two main systems are Rift Alpha and Rift Bravo. Rift Alpha targets Group 1 and 2 UAS, can be launched from the hand, a tube, or a box, has a range of about 2 km and top speed around 60 m/s, and is already in customer use. Rift Bravo is a smaller, foldable Group 1 interceptor with roughly 1 km range, speeds above 100 mph, and a form factor that allows a dozen to fit in a rucksack; Bravo remains in development supported by non‑dilutive R&D contracts. Askari says it has over $2M in real procurement contracts and an order book exceeding $2M, with customers predominantly in the special operations community and reported intercept rates near 90% during testing with a Tier One customer. The company emerged from stealth in April, was founded by Georgia Tech alumni Robbie Van Zyl and Ben Airdo (both 25) alongside Marc Van Zyl, and plans to use new funding to scale production and expand engineering and operations headcount. Future product ambitions include adapting interceptors for ground‑vehicle threats and developing tooling to automate rapid interceptor design and delivery.

Total raised

$9M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Jun 2026