Aleksander Leonard Larsen co-founded Sky Mavis in 2018 and served as COO while Axie Infinity became the world’s most-traded NFT collection, reaching $4.2 billion in volume, $1.3 billion in revenue, and a $3 billion valuation after a $152 million raise from Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Paradigm.
He is now building Stendr, a Norwegian defence technology company specialising in AI drone detection and defence.t The startup raised $5.4 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed round, one of the largest in Nordic defence tech history.
RainFall, ACME, and SkyFall co-led, with participation from Sisyphus, Antler, StartupLab, Off Piste, Andøya Ventures, and a global angel syndicate of technology founders and investors.
Europe’s counter-drone market was $1.24 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $4.16 billion by 2030 at a 27.5% annual growth rate. The EU’s ReArm Europe programme and Germany’s $12 billion commitment to a drone arsenal are accelerating procurement across the continent. Existing defence systems were not built for cheap, fast, autonomous, swarm-capable threats.
Stendr’s approach is vertical integration, offering full-stack hardware and software solutions with AI at the core, designed for European sovereignty. Rather than focusing on a single detection or jamming product, the company aims to become the foundational technology provider for a new Nordic defence leader.
Norway is a strategic location for Stendr. The country shares one of NATO’s longest land borders with Russia, controls a critical North Atlantic coastline, and has committed 2% of its GDP to defence spending. Andøya Ventures, one of the investors, is named after the island hosting Norway’s advanced autonomous systems test facility, offering a validation pathway unavailable to competitors in London or Berlin.
Larsen is joined by Robin Alexander Holm Pedersen as CTO, who brings 15 years of experience in AI systems, digital identity infrastructure, and hardware, including roles at Brønnøysundregistrene and Norges Bank. Head of Hardware Markus Leonhard Hansen co-founded Gungnir of Norway and led a hardware product from concept to global recognition over seven years.
The competitive landscape is fragmented. DroneShield generated $98 million in European revenue in 2025. Thales, Leonardo, and Rafael are also active in this sector. Nordic Air Defence, a direct local competitor, raised $4.4 million in pre-seed funding in 2025. Stendr stands out with its full-stack, AI-native, and European-sovereign approach.
The pre-seed funding provides the team with time to develop. The true test will be securing the first government procurement relationship and achieving deployment of certified hardware.
