An Israeli defense-tech startup founded by veterans of Israel’s most advanced air-defense programs has emerged from stealth with a $36 million seed round and an ambitious objective, defeating hundreds of attacking drones simultaneously without exhausting expensive missile stockpiles.

Skapion is developing what it calls the world’s first “native counter-swarm” system, a mobile defense platform designed from the ground up for mass drone attacks rather than individual interceptions. The company says the system will detect, engage and neutralize hundreds of unmanned aerial threats at once, including in areas where communications are disrupted or unavailable.

Unlike conventional air-defense batteries built primarily to stop aircraft, rockets or missiles, Skapion’s platform is expected to launch dozens of smaller, lower-cost interceptors against incoming swarms. The company says the interception cost could fall below $10,000 per target, compared with at least approximately $40,000 for a single Tamir interceptor used by Iron Dome. Those figures remain company estimates while the system undergoes development and validation.

“The question is no longer whether a single drone can be detected or hit,” Skapion CEO and co-founder Ido Bar-On said. Modern militaries, he argued, must be able to defeat large numbers of coordinated threats with sufficient speed and at a sustainable cost.

That challenge has become increasingly urgent. Cheap first-person-view drones and one-way attack UAVs have transformed battlefields from Ukraine to the Middle East, allowing hostile forces to threaten soldiers, bases and critical infrastructure at a fraction of the cost required to stop them. Hezbollah terrorists have also deployed inexpensive fiber-optic drones against Israeli troops and military platforms in Lebanon, exploiting an area where systems designed for isolated aerial threats can struggle.

Skapion says its system is intended to accompany maneuvering forces, protect forward operating bases and defend fixed strategic sites. It is also being engineered to operate during poor weather and in contested environments where electronic interference, damaged communications or deliberate jamming could limit other defensive systems.

The startup’s leadership draws heavily from Israel’s air-defense and military-technology ecosystem. Co-founder Brig. Gen. (res.) Pini Yungman previously headed Rafael’s Air and Missile Defense Systems division and contributed to the development of Iron Dome and David’s Sling. Bar-On previously led international defense and government activity at Israeli drone company XTEND and served as an IDF special-operations lieutenant colonel in the reserves.

The founding team also includes CTO Gal Goren, Enlight Renewable Energy co-founder Zafrir Yoeli and veteran defense entrepreneur Yaron Karp. Although Skapion was established less than a year ago, it has already recruited more than 20 specialists in aerospace, robotics, autonomy, engineering and defense technology.

The unusually large seed round was co-led by UP.Partners and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Fusion VC, Stratos Ventures, TBD VC and q Fund. Skapion will use the money to accelerate engineering, expand its workforce and validate the system with government agencies, defense organizations and strategic partners in Israel, the United States and allied countries.

The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., while its research and development operation is based in Ramat Gan. It has not publicly disclosed a deployment timetable, a launch customer or whether the system has completed operational testing.

The concept remains unproven in combat, but the potential impact is significant. If Skapion delivers on its promises, Israel could add an entirely new defensive layer built specifically for an era in which enemies attempt to overwhelm air defenses not with one sophisticated missile, but with waves of inexpensive, coordinated drones.