Stelius raises $5M pre-seed to build megawatt-class high-power microwave systems for drone swarm defense and directed energy

Stelius is a U.S. defense hardware startup building megawatt-class high-power microwave systems to defeat drone swarms. Founder and CEO Richard Starson describes the core problem simply: cheap drones are arriving in the thousands, and taking them down with expensive munitions doesn't scale. High-power microwaves, he argues, can disable large swarms simultaneously without expending a missile per target.

“If you've got thousands of drones flying at you that are extremely cheap to produce, you want to be able to take them down without expending extremely expensive munitions. Megawatt class microwaves are uniquely capable of taking down those large swarms of drones... We signed a $2,000,000 contract to build the systems pilot units and then fairly quickly raised 5,000,000 pre-seed.”

What it does

Stelius is developing gyrotrons and klystrons operating in the 100 kilowatt to megawatt range. At those power levels, the system can deny a drone swarm across a several-hundred-meter front, with a target range of one to two miles for complete area denial and jamming at longer distances. The power advantage over solid-state or laser alternatives matters because solid-state and laser systems struggle to exceed tens or hundreds of kilowatts, capping their effective range.

Applications include counter-electronics (frying drone circuitry), area denial around forward operating bases, borders, and data centers, and eventually space domain operations. The systems are non-lethal to humans. Starson is clear this sits inside a layered defense stack, not as a standalone solution — kinetic, jamming, and directed energy systems would operate in concert.

Mobility depends on power class. At 100 kilowatts, units can go on mobile platforms. At megawatt class, they're stationary, sized for fixed infrastructure protection.

Traction and funding

Stelius started around June 2025, signed a $2M government contract to build pilot units, and then closed a $5M pre-seed round. Investors include Jamie Gal from WaveFunction, Qubit Capital, and Mana Ventures.

Fusion as a long-term bet

Starson flags compact fusion as what he calls a "sleeper" for the company. The research and design work is early-stage, but his stated ambition is to make the U.S. the leader in compact fusion for applications spanning hypersonics, supersonic flight, and spaceflight. No timeline or technical detail was offered beyond that framing.

At $5M pre-seed with a government contract already signed, Stelius is early but not unfunded. The real question is whether its power-density claims translate into field-ready hardware — that's what the pilot units are meant to prove.