French drone startup Harmattan AI becomes first military tech unicorn with $200 million funding
Harmattan AI, a French defense drone startup founded in April 2024 by 26-year-old Mouad M'Ghari, has become the country's first military technology unicorn after raising $200 million (about €170 million) in January. The funding round included Dassault Aviation, maker of the Rafale fighter jet. The company has moved from a small Paris workshop to a new factory in Wissous capable of producing up to 10,000 drones per month, set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin.
Harmattan AI, a French defense drone startup founded in April 2024 by 26-year-old Mouad M'Ghari, has become the country's first military technology unicorn after raising $200 million (about €170 million) in January. The funding round included Dassault Aviation, manufacturer of the Rafale fighter jet, as an investor.
M'Ghari, a mathematics prodigy, was admitted to the elite Polytechnique engineering school in 2020 but left after one year to attend École Normale Supérieure in Paris, later earning a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His company previously assembled drones in a small workshop in a courtyard in Paris's 2nd arrondissement.
Since February, Harmattan AI has occupied a building in Wissous, in the Essonne department south of Paris, where it can produce up to 10,000 drones per month. The site is set to be inaugurated in the coming weeks by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin, and will become the largest drone factory of its kind in France, symbolizing the government's ambitions in the sector.