Kova Labs
About
About Kova Labs
Kova Labs develops onboard autonomy for uncrewed systems operating in closed, cluttered and communications-limited environments. Its first product, Kilo, is intended to let aircraft navigate forests, indoor spaces and other complex terrain without continuous GNSS or operator connectivity.
The company combines computer vision, embedded software and vehicle hardware into a local autonomy layer for individual and large groups of systems. Founded in Helsinki in 2025 by a team with military and civilian drone experience, Kova is initially focused on battlefield conditions where vegetation, structures, electronic warfare and intermittent links limit conventional remotely piloted aircraft. Kilo remains an early-stage product under active development.
Funding
- 2025-08-04 - Pre-seed - $1.7M - Kova Labs raises €1.5M pre-seed for mission-critical autonomous systems
Kova Labs raised a €1.5 million pre-seed round led by Lifeline Ventures and Tuomas Rasila. - source: nordic9.com
Investors
- Lifeline Ventures - Lead - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-08-04
- Tuomas Rasila - Participant - Angel / Individual - 1 funding event - first seen 2025-08-04
Team
- Touko Rautiainen - CEO & Co-Founder
- Luukas Lohilahti - Co-Founder
- Teemu Rautavalta - Co-Founder
- Otso Lehtovuori - Co-Founder
Timeline
Events
- 2026-01-23 - Market Signal - Kova Labs highlighted for autonomous hardware intelligence stack
Kova Labs was highlighted as a Finnish startup building autonomy software for machines operating in complex and contested environments. The company’s technology processed spatial data such as point clouds for 3D mapping and terrain understanding. The system targeted autonomous operation where GPS may be jammed or communications may be restricted.
Source - 2025-08-04 - Funding - Kova Labs raises €1.5M pre-seed for mission-critical autonomous systems
Kova Labs raised a €1.5 million pre-seed round led by Lifeline Ventures and Tuomas Rasila. The company developed autonomous systems for forests and other difficult terrain where continuous human oversight is not practical. The funding supported Kova Labs’ work on real-time autonomy for complex outdoor and mission-critical environments.
Source
Context
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Shared workflows
- ARX Robotics
workflow adjacency - Tactical Offroad Autonomy
Context tags
- Off-road defence autonomy stack - Stack Layer - Official profile source material and canonical segment fields support this context tag.
- Tactical off-road autonomy - Workflow - Official profile source material and canonical segment fields support this context tag.
- Defence AI autonomy-software stack - Stack Layer - Official profile source material and canonical segment fields support this context tag.