Mara raises $7 million for portable drone defense system

San Francisco-based defense startup Mara has raised $7 million in pre-seed funding to develop Spike, a portable counter-drone system designed to defend troops and military sites against swarms of small first-person-view (FPV) attack drones.

The Spike system utilizes a distributed mesh of small, low-cost nodes rather than traditional, expensive single-point defenses. It consists of two primary components: a Spotter module, which uses visual and acoustic sensors to identify incoming threats, and Seeker interceptors. These autonomous interceptors weigh approximately 0.55 pounds, can reach speeds of up to 124 mph, and are designed to locate and intercept drones without operator intervention.

A single Spike launcher can carry up to 48 Seekers and can be reloaded in less than a minute. The technology is designed for versatility, with configurations available for backpack-mounted use by small units, vehicle mounting, or scaled protection for larger sites. Mara reported that the system has undergone live field testing in the U.S. and Europe, including exercises with the U.S. Army and special operations units.