PDKINEMATICS

Precision guidance systems for UAV-deployed munitions that operate where GPS is jammed.

Cover Block

Publicly reported

Field	Value
Name	PDKINEMATICS
Tagline	Precision guidance systems for UAV-deployed munitions that operate where GPS is jammed. [PDKINEMATICS]
Headquarters	Vilnius, Lithuania [Vestbee, June 2026]
Founded	2025 [Vestbee, June 2026]
Stage	Seed [BeeBeez, June 2026]
Business model	Hardware + Software
Industry	Defense / Govtech
Technology type	Hardware
Geography	Eastern Europe
Growth profile	Venture Scale
Founding team	Rapolas Markevičius, Simonas Stasevičius, Dominykas Rinkevičius [Vestbee, June 2026]
Funding label	Seed
Total disclosed	€3 million [EU-Startups, June 2026]

Summary and Signal

PUBLIC PDKINEMATICS is a Vilnius-based defense technology startup building GNSS-independent precision-guidance systems for UAV-deployed munitions, and it merits attention now because public reporting suggests it is targeting a clear battlefield constraint, GPS jamming, with a retrofit-style product rather than a new aircraft program [Startup.eu, June 2026] [The Japan Times, August 2026] [EU-Startups, June 2026]. Founded in 2025 by Rapolas Markevičius, Simonas Stasevičius, and Dominykas Rinkevičius, the company emerged from Lithuania’s recent wave of dual-use and defense startups, with coverage tying its early direction to wartime operational needs in Europe’s eastern security environment [Vestbee, June 2026] [EU-Startups, June 2026].

The core product is the Gannet system, described as a low-SWaP-C, platform-agnostic precision guided munition kit for UAVs that is designed to maintain strike accuracy when GPS or GNSS is denied; reported specifications include compatibility with standard multi-rotor platforms and operating profiles that allow bomber-class UAVs to strike from up to 700 meters [EUROPESAYS.COM] [Dalo Industry Days] [sUAS News, June 2026]. The differentiation, based on public materials, rests less on airframe development and more on adding guidance capability to existing drones and munitions, which could shorten adoption cycles if integration claims hold up in field use [Startup Researcher] [Startup.eu, June 2026].

The founding team brings a mix of finance and engineering backgrounds. Tech.eu identifies CEO Rapolas Markevičius as a former private-equity fund manager at 1 Asset Management, while EU-Startups describes co-founder Simonas Stasevičius as an aerospace engineer involved in developing the company’s precision-guided UAV munitions; Dominykas Rinkevičius is named in seed-round coverage as the third co-founder [Tech.eu, October 2026] [EU-Startups, June 2026] [Vestbee, June 2026].

On financing, BeeBeez reported a June 2026 seed round of €2 million led by Coinvest Capital and Iron Wolf Capital, while multiple outlets said the round brought total funding to €3 million, implying earlier capital that has not been fully detailed in the retrieved public sources [BeeBeez, June 2026] [EU-Startups, June 2026] [N24, June 2026]. The business model appears to be hardware plus software around precision-guidance kits for defense users and partners, with public reporting also pointing to collaboration with Italian UAV manufacturer SiraLab as part of a European go-to-market effort [Tech.eu, June 2026] [Startup.eu, June 2026].

Over the next 12 to 18 months, the key points to watch are whether PDKINEMATICS can convert product claims into documented deployments, expand named integration partnerships beyond early collaborators, and show evidence that its GNSS-denied accuracy translates from demonstrations into repeat procurement by European defense buyers [The Japan Times, August 2026] [Tech.eu, October 2026] [Startbase, June 2026]. The company is addressing a real and current operational problem, but the public record still says more about technical promise and early backing than about revenue, contract scale, or sustained production capacity [EU-Startups, June 2026] [BeeBeez, June 2026].

One source, partially checked -- Core company, founder, and seed-round facts are corroborated by multiple public sources, but several product capability details remain sourced to company-linked or single-source reporting.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis	Value
Stage	Seed
Business Model	Hardware + Software
Industry / Vertical	Defense / Govtech
Technology Type	Hardware
Geography	Eastern Europe
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Co-Founders (3+)
Funding	Seed, total disclosed about $3.2 million [BeeBeez, June 2026] [EU-Startups, June 2026]

Company Overview

Overview

PUBLIC PDKINEMATICS presents as a newly formed Lithuanian defense-technology company focused on one clear problem: keeping UAV-deployed munitions accurate when satellite navigation is denied. The company is based in Vilnius, Lithuania, and its website describes the business as building precision guidance systems for UAV-deployed munitions that operate where GPS is jammed [PDKINEMATICS]. Public coverage cited in this section dates the founding to 2025 and names Rapolas Markevičius, Simonas Stasevičius, and Dominykas Rinkevičius as co-founders [Vestbee, June 2026].

The limited public record still establishes an early chronology. By June 2026, multiple outlets were reporting a seed financing for the company and describing its flagship guidance offering, Gannet, as the center of its commercial push [Vestbee, June 2026]. Later coverage in October 2026 identified Markevičius as founder and CEO and framed the company as part of a broader Baltic defense-technology wave responding to modern electronic-warfare conditions [Tech.eu, October 2026].

On structure, the public materials reviewed for this section do not establish a legal entity name beyond the operating brand shown on the company website [PDKINEMATICS]. That leaves some routine diligence items open, including formal incorporation details and registry-level filings, but the core company profile is straightforward: a Vilnius-headquartered, 2025-vintage startup developing guidance systems for contested GPS environments [PDKINEMATICS] [Vestbee, June 2026].

One source, partially checked -- Confirmed by the company website and partially corroborated by public venture coverage; founding details rely on a single independent publisher in this section.

The Product and the Stack

Core system

MIXED The technical proposition is straightforward: PDKINEMATICS is building GNSS-independent precision-guidance systems for UAV-deployed munitions, with the product positioned for environments where GPS or GNSS is denied or jammed [Startup.eu, June 2026] [The Japan Times, August 2026]. Public product descriptions center on Gannet, which multiple sources describe as a low-SWaP-C, platform-agnostic precision-guided munition kit rather than a new aircraft platform, an important distinction because it suggests the company is selling an upgrade layer for existing drones and munitions [EUROPESAYS.COM] [Startup Researcher].

The available public detail is still uneven, and much of the language originates in company-adjacent coverage rather than independent test reporting. Even so, several sources converge on the same basic operating claim: Gannet is meant to improve strike accuracy under jamming conditions and integrate with standard multirotor or bomber-class UAVs already in service [Startup.eu, June 2026] [EUROPESAYS.COM] [Dalo Industry Days] [sUAS News, June 2026].

Claimed capabilities

MIXED The most specific capability claims in circulation are directional rather than fully verified. Public materials and event coverage say the system can enable accurate strikes from up to 700 meters, described as roughly six times higher than unguided munitions, while one startup database attributes sub-meter target engagement to the platform [Dalo Industry Days] [sUAS News, June 2026] [StartupHub.ai]. A separate partner description adds that the flight-control computer includes an AI edge processor for real-time target detection and classification, and that the system can autonomously abort a strike if collateral-damage estimates change [Skyborne Technologies].

Those details matter because they imply PDKINEMATICS is trying to combine guidance, onboard compute, and mission-safety logic in a package small enough to retrofit onto existing UAV systems. The evidence standard, however, remains below what institutional buyers would usually want for technical diligence: no verified demo footage, third-party test results, or procurement documentation in the source set confirms the full performance envelope in public [Tech.eu, October 2026] [The Japan Times, August 2026]. The reported partnership with Italian UAV maker SiraLab does support the interoperability angle, but it does not by itself validate field performance [Tech.eu, June 2026].

One source, partially checked -- Core product scope is corroborated across Startup.eu, The Japan Times, and EUROPESAYS.COM, but detailed performance claims rely on single-source or company-adjacent reporting.

The Market They Are Entering

PUBLIC

This market matters now because electronic warfare is pushing low-cost drone warfare toward guidance layers that can still function when satellite navigation is degraded or denied [The Japan Times, August 2026] [Startup.eu, June 2026].

Public source coverage on PDKINEMATICS is stronger on problem definition than on market sizing. The available materials consistently place the company in GNSS-independent precision guidance for UAV-deployed munitions, but they do not cite third-party TAM, SAM, or SOM figures for that exact niche [Startup.eu, June 2026] [Vestbee, June 2026]. In practice, that leaves the market case resting on an adjacent, clearly visible budget line: defense buyers are trying to preserve strike accuracy under GPS jamming, while avoiding full-platform replacement where an add-on guidance kit can upgrade existing UAV and munition inventories [The Japan Times, August 2026] [Startup Researcher].

The immediate demand driver is operational, not conceptual. Multiple reports describe PDKINEMATICS's product around a specific battlefield constraint, namely GPS or GNSS denial, and position the Gannet system as a retrofit-style precision-guidance layer for bomber-class or standard multirotor UAVs rather than a clean-sheet aircraft program [Startup.eu, June 2026] [Dalo Industry Days] [EUROPESAYS.COM]. That matters because retrofit categories often benefit from faster procurement interest than entirely new airframes, especially when militaries and allied suppliers already have deployed drone fleets and need better accuracy rather than a different aircraft architecture [Startup Researcher] [The Japan Times, August 2026].

Adjacent markets are easier to identify than the company's exact served market. The closest substitutes appear to be full-stack loitering munitions, guided small munitions, EW-resilient navigation modules, and broader drone autonomy stacks that combine sensing, targeting, and flight control in contested environments [The Japan Times, August 2026] [Skyborne Technologies]. PDKINEMATICS's positioning, based on public coverage, sits between airframe manufacturers and end users: it is selling a guidance-and-control layer that can integrate with existing UAV platforms and munitions, which gives it exposure both to defense integrators and to manufacturers looking to add precision capability without redesigning the whole system [Startup Researcher] [EUROPESAYS.COM].

Regulatory and macro forces are supportive, though still uneven across Europe. The reporting around the company comes out of a broader regional defense reset shaped by Russia's war in Ukraine, higher urgency on NATO's eastern flank, and a growing willingness among European governments and investors to back defense-technology companies that would have struggled for mainstream venture attention a few years earlier [The Japan Times, August 2026] [EU-Startups, June 2026] [Tech.eu, October 2026]. The counterweight is procurement friction: defense adoption is still governed by export controls, military qualification cycles, and country-by-country purchasing processes, so market expansion may track partner access and field validation more than top-down budget headlines [Tech.eu, October 2026] [Startbase, June 2026].

Market lens	Public signal	Relevance to PDKINEMATICS
Contested-navigation demand	Coverage emphasizes GPS/GNSS jamming as a live operational problem [The Japan Times, August 2026] [Startup.eu, June 2026]	Supports demand for navigation-independent precision guidance
Retrofit procurement path	Sources describe integration with existing UAVs and munitions [Startup Researcher] [EUROPESAYS.COM]	Suggests a narrower, potentially faster adoption wedge than new-platform procurement
European defense reset	Multiple reports frame Baltic and European defense tech as gaining investor and policy attention [The Japan Times, August 2026] [EU-Startups, June 2026] [Tech.eu, October 2026]	Improves financing and partnership conditions for dual-use and defense startups
Go-to-market adjacency	Reported partnership with Italian UAV maker SiraLab [Tech.eu, June 2026]	Indicates channel expansion through OEM or integrator relationships

The table points to a market that is legible through mission need and procurement behavior, not through precise public sizing data. For investors, that usually means diligence should focus less on abstract TAM slides and more on qualification timelines, buyer types, and repeatability of integration work across UAV platforms.

One source, partially checked -- This section relies on multiple public sources for the operational demand picture, but no named third-party market-sizing report for the exact category was available in the cited research.

The Competitive Field

MIXED PDKINEMATICS appears to be positioned less as a full-drone manufacturer and more as a precision-guidance layer for existing UAV and munition platforms, which puts its closest competition, on the public record available here, in adjacent integration partners and legacy precision-guided alternatives rather than in a clearly documented set of same-product startup peers [Startup.eu, June 2026] [Startup Researcher] [Tech.eu, June 2026].

The public evidence supports a three-part map. First are incumbent precision-strike and guided-munition suppliers, which already sell accuracy and battlefield reliability but typically through larger, costlier defense procurement channels; the available sources do not name those incumbents directly, so the comparison remains category-level rather than company-specific [The Japan Times, August 2026] [EU-Startups, June 2026]. Second are drone OEMs and UAV manufacturers, including named partner SiraLab, that control the airframe and operator relationship but are not described in the sourced material as owning the same GNSS-independent guidance layer PDKINEMATICS is building [Tech.eu, June 2026] [Startbase, June 2026]. Third are adjacent autonomy and targeting software providers such as Bavovna.ai, which Startbase and other coverage describe as a collaborator rather than a direct rival, suggesting the current product wedge is to sit inside a broader strike stack rather than replace the stack outright [Startbase, June 2026].

That distinction matters because the company's edge, to the extent it is visible publicly, is architectural and channel-oriented rather than scale-based. Multiple sources describe Gannet as GNSS-independent, low-SWaP-C, and designed for integration with standard multi-rotor or existing UAV platforms, which is a practical value proposition in contested electronic-warfare environments and in fleets that militaries already field [Startup.eu, June 2026] [EUROPESAYS.COM] [Startup Researcher]. The SiraLab partnership adds a modest distribution signal into Europe, and reporting that systems are supplied to Ukraine and European allies suggests some real-world relevance, though without contract detail or deployment volume the durability of that edge is still unproven [Tech.eu, June 2026] [The Japan Times, August 2026]. In plain terms, the current advantage looks perishable unless integration wins convert into repeat procurement, because platform-agnostic components are easier to adopt than whole systems, but they are also easier for better-capitalized integrators to absorb or replicate if demand becomes obvious [EU-Startups, June 2026] [BeeBeez, June 2026].

The main exposure is not a named startup competitor in the source set so much as control of the prime contractor relationship. If OEMs, defense integrators, or autonomy-stack partners choose to internalize guidance, PDKINEMATICS risks becoming a component supplier with limited pricing power and limited ownership of the end customer [Startup Researcher] [Startbase, June 2026]. Bavovna.ai is the clearest named company in the current orbit with category adjacency: if mission software, targeting, and airframe partners expand into the guidance layer, they would hold stronger workflow ownership than a standalone module provider, even if today's relationship is collaborative rather than adversarial [Startbase, June 2026]. By the same logic, SiraLab has an advantage in platform distribution, because an OEM can package guidance as native functionality instead of as an add-on, which could compress differentiation unless PDKINEMATICS keeps its performance lead in jammed environments visible and independently validated [Tech.eu, June 2026] [EUROPESAYS.COM].

The most plausible 18-month scenario is a split outcome between component specialists and integrated drone stacks. Winner if X: SiraLab, if European customers prefer to buy a more complete UAV package with guidance embedded at the platform level and if partnership economics allow the OEM to keep that capability close to the airframe sale [Tech.eu, June 2026] [Startbase, June 2026]. Loser if Y: Bavovna.ai, if procurement shifts away from software-led autonomy differentiation toward hardening and precision in GNSS-denied environments where the guidance layer carries more operational weight than mission-planning software alone, although the public record today points to cooperation rather than displacement [Startbase, June 2026] [The Japan Times, August 2026]. For PDKINEMATICS itself, the competitive question is narrower: whether it can remain the preferred neutral guidance layer across multiple UAV partners, instead of being pulled into one platform's roadmap or outcompeted by incumbent integrators with deeper procurement access [EU-Startups, June 2026] [BeeBeez, June 2026].

One source, partially checked -- Competitive analysis rests on public reporting from Startup.eu, Tech.eu, Startbase, The Japan Times, EU-Startups, BeeBeez, and Startup Researcher, but the source set names no direct startup competitors and provides limited independent evidence on contract scale or sustained field performance.

Opportunity

PUBLIC The size of the prize here is substantial if PDKINEMATICS can turn a guidance kit into a procurement standard, because it is selling into a defense problem that is operationally urgent, tied to electronic warfare, and not limited to a single drone platform [The Japan Times, August 2026] [Startup.eu, June 2026].

The headline opportunity is not simply to sell one more UAV component. It is to become a default precision-guidance layer for low-cost drone munitions used by Ukraine, NATO-edge militaries, and European defense manufacturers that need accuracy under GNSS denial without replacing their installed airframes [Startup.eu, June 2026] [Startup Researcher] [The Japan Times, August 2026]. That outcome is reachable, not merely aspirational, because the company is positioning Gannet as a low-SWaP-C, platform-agnostic kit engineered for integration with standard multi-rotor UAVs, and because early public evidence already points to external validation through a June 2026 seed round led by Coinvest Capital and Iron Wolf Capital plus a reported partnership with Italian UAV maker SiraLab [BeeBeez, June 2026] [Vestbee, June 2026] [EUROPESAYS.COM, retrieved 2026] [Tech.eu, June 2026]. In plain terms, if defense buyers increasingly prefer upgrading existing bomber-class UAV fleets rather than waiting for clean-sheet systems, PDKINEMATICS is aiming at a layer of the stack that could travel across manufacturers and theaters [Startup Researcher] [Dalo Industry Days, retrieved 2026].

The growth paths are narrow enough to be testable and broad enough to matter. What stands out in the public record is that each plausible path depends on one thing the company says it already has, integration into existing platforms, and one thing outside reporting suggests the market already needs, accuracy in jammed environments [Startup.eu, June 2026] [The Japan Times, August 2026].

Scenario	What happens	Catalyst	Why it's plausible
Upgrade layer for European UAV OEMs	Gannet becomes an embedded guidance option shipped with multiple allied drone platforms, letting OEMs offer precision-strike capability without building the guidance stack internally	Additional partnerships similar to the reported SiraLab collaboration, plus proof that the kit integrates with most standard multi-rotor UAVs [Tech.eu, June 2026] [EUROPESAYS.COM, retrieved 2026]	The company is explicitly described as platform-agnostic and integration-oriented, which fits an OEM-channel model better than a closed full-stack aircraft strategy [Startup.eu, June 2026] [Startup Researcher]
Precision retrofit standard for low-cost munitions	Defense users adopt the system as a retrofit path that turns cheaper unguided drone munitions into more accurate weapons under jamming	Operational demand from Ukraine and European allies, alongside demonstrated performance claims such as higher release altitude without sacrificing accuracy [The Japan Times, August 2026] [Dalo Industry Days, retrieved 2026]	Public coverage frames the product around converting low-cost unguided systems into accurate ones, which is a procurement argument with clear budget logic if the performance holds in field use [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] [sUAS News, June 2026]
Trusted autonomy module for allied defense integrators	PDKINEMATICS expands from guidance into onboard decision support, with edge processing and strike-abort logic becoming part of a broader autonomy package sold through integrators	Validation of the reported AI edge processor and autonomous collateral-damage abort capability in procurement or integration programs [Skyborne Technologies, retrieved 2026] [Startbase, June 2026]	If those features are real and certifiable, they move the company from hardware add-on toward mission software plus controls, which usually carries more strategic weight in defense systems integration [Skyborne Technologies, retrieved 2026]

The compounding dynamic, if it emerges, is straightforward. Each successful integration can make the next sale easier because a platform-agnostic guidance kit should accumulate compatibility proof points, operational data in jammed conditions, and references from OEMs or defense users that reduce adoption friction for the next program [Startup.eu, June 2026] [EUROPESAYS.COM, retrieved 2026]. The reported SiraLab partnership matters in that light, not because one collaboration changes the company overnight, but because it suggests a route into European channels beyond Lithuania [Tech.eu, June 2026].

A second layer of compounding would come from product scope. If Gannet starts as a precision-guided munition kit and proves the value of its flight-control and onboard processing stack, the company could plausibly add software-heavy features around targeting, classification, or mission safety that deepen switching costs over time [Skyborne Technologies, retrieved 2026]. That is still an if, and the public record does not establish procurement scale yet, but the architecture described in available sources points to a model where one hardware win can pull through recurring integration and software value rather than staying a one-off component sale [Startup.eu, June 2026] [Skyborne Technologies, retrieved 2026].

The size of the win is best framed as a scenario rather than a forecast. No reliable public TAM figure is provided in the source set, and there is no disclosed valuation to anchor a direct multiple, so the cleaner way to size upside is strategic value: if PDKINEMATICS becomes a preferred guidance and autonomy layer for European UAV munition retrofits, it could grow into an acquisition target for a larger defense prime or autonomy supplier seeking GNSS-denied strike capability, especially given reported demand linked to Ukraine and NATO's eastern flank [The Japan Times, August 2026] [Tech.eu, October 2026]. In that scenario, not a forecast, the company would be valuable not only for the kit itself but for control over an integration point that sits between airframe, munition, and mission software [Startup Researcher] [Startup.eu, June 2026]. That is the kind of wedge that can produce outsized enterprise value in defense technology even before a business reaches broad commercial scale, provided technical claims hold up in field conditions and procurement cycles convert into repeat programs [BeeBeez, June 2026] [The Japan Times, August 2026].

One source, partially checked -- Built primarily from public reporting in BeeBeez, Vestbee, Tech.eu, The Japan Times, Startup.eu, and related company-adjacent coverage; several product-capability claims remain only partially corroborated in public sources.

Sources