Turkey's Arke Telekom raises €1 million for jam-proof drone comms
What's the deal? Ankara-based Arke TelekomDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised €1 million in an early VC round led by ACT Venture PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The company develops defence and communications technology, and said it will use the funds to take its ArkeLink product to international markets and expand its product family for different unmanned systems.
What's the endgame? Founded in 2014 by Saygun Önay, Barış Karadeniz, and Dr. Tolga Numanoğlu, Arke builds systems that keep drones connected under electronic warfare and signal-jamming conditions. ArkeLink aims to maintain communication where signals are jammed or satellite navigation is disabled.
How does it work? The product combines software-defined radio with a mesh network architecture, letting devices form their own communication networks. If one link drops, alternative routes take over, making the system more resilient to disruption.
What's the endgame — civilian too? Defence is the priority use case, but Arke also targets disaster management, search and rescue, public safety, and critical infrastructure security. The company has been selected for NATO's DIANA program, which backs innovative defence and security technologies.
Why ACT? Managing partner Erhan Z. Kılıçözlü said the team's expertise in communications technology and its ability to solve complex engineering problems and bring technology to real-world conditions shaped the investment decision. The €1 million cheque sits within ACT's typical €500,000–€1.5 million range for pre-seed and seed deals.
The signal: This is an early institutional bet, with the round landing in the lower quartile of deal sizes by amount. The main takeaway is the investor's backing of a Turkish dual-use innovator rather than an outsized raise.
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