Kelluu selected for Canada's Defence Drone Initiative. Canada's Defence Investment Agency, which runs defence procurement for the country, has selected Kelluu's Canadian subsidiary Kelluu Canada Ltd. as a qualified supplier under the Defence Drone Initiative. Canadian defence authorities can now request quotes and place orders with Kelluu directly, without running a separate competition. The arrangement runs to the end of July 2031. Canada launched the programme in July 2026 to speed up how fast its armed forces get uncrewed systems into the field. Kelluu is the only airship company among the suppliers named so far. The others include defence primes such as Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and Rheinmetall. "Under this arrangement we can offer tactical ISR to the Canadian armed forces. Our platform delivers exactly what is valued here: autonomous, persistent and cost-effective surveillance that was designed for arctic conditions," says Janne Hietala, CEO of Kelluu. Kelluu established Kelluu Canada Ltd. in Ottawa this summer. The office is at Area X.O, Canada's hub for defence innovation and emerging technology. Canada is part of Kelluu's focus on Arctic autonomy and deterrence. Kelluu's airships deliver detailed situational awareness from below the clouds, over large areas that are remote and thinly covered. The company is building towards a network of hundreds of airships, doing close to the ground what satellites do from orbit.

10 nordic-based AI scale-ups you need to know in 2026. The Nordics have built a reputation for pairing deep technical rigor with a genuine focus on solving specific, high-stakes problems, and this list bears that out. Sweden contributes the largest share, with entries spanning video analytics, data observability, and driving risk insights, while Denmark brings clinical AI for radiology and elder care, and Finland and Norway round things out with tax AI and business app-building tools. From brain MRI decision support to AI nurse companions, these are the companies proving that Nordic AI is being built where the consequences of getting it wrong are highest. Companies are listed in alphabetical order. This list is non-exhaustive. Headquarters: Helsinki, Southern Finland, Finland | Total Funding: $47.3M | Last Funding: June 4, 2025 Transfer pricing is one of the more complex, high-stakes compliance obligations multinational corporations face, requiring constant documentation and analysis across jurisdictions with different rules and enforcement regimes. Aibidia is a fintech company that provides AI-powered transfer pricing management solutions to multinational corporations, automating a compliance function that has traditionally relied on manual analysis and outside advisors. The company has raised $47.3 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in June 2025, as it expands its transfer pricing platform across multinational clients. Headquarters: Copenhagen, Syddanmark, Denmark | Total Funding: $36.0M | Last Funding: September 18, 2025 Radiology departments and imaging centers face a persistent shortage of specialists relative to the volume of scans that need to be read, and brain MRI interpretation in particular carries little room for error given the stakes involved. Cerebriu is a clinical AI company developing brain MRI decision support technology for radiology departments and imaging centers worldwide, aiming to extend specialist capacity rather than replace clinical judgment. The company has raised $36 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in September 2025, as it expands its clinical AI platform across imaging centers. Headquarters: Stockholm, Stockholms Län, Sweden | Total Funding: $25.9M | Last Funding: December 12, 2025 Auto insurers have historically priced risk using broad demographic and vehicle data rather than how a specific person actually drives, leaving both safer drivers and insurers themselves without the precision that better data could offer. Greater Than is an insurtech company that delivers insights into driving behavior, crash risk, and environmental impact, giving insurers a far more precise basis for underwriting than conventional risk models allow. The company has raised $25.9 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in December 2025, as it expands its driving risk analytics platform. Headquarters: Gothenburg, Västra Götaland, Sweden | Total Funding: $47.9M | Last Funding: April 28, 2026 Video surveillance generates far more footage than any human team can realistically monitor in real time, leaving most security incidents discovered only after the fact, when the footage is reviewed rather than acted on as it happens. Irisity describes itself as a world-leading video analytics company, applying AI to surveillance footage to flag incidents as they unfold rather than after the fact. With $47.9 million in total funding, the highest on this list, and its most recent round closing in April 2026, Irisity continues to expand its video analytics platform globally. Headquarters: Joensuu, Eastern Finland, Finland | Total Funding: $22.0M | Last Funding: April 14, 2026 Monitoring environmental conditions and infrastructure across large areas has traditionally required either expensive satellite imagery with limited resolution or costly, labor-intensive ground surveys. Kelluu develops autonomous aerial monitoring systems to collect and analyze high-resolution environmental and infrastructure data, offering a resolution and cost profile that neither satellites nor ground surveys can match on their own. The company has raised $22 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in April 2026, as it expands its autonomous aerial monitoring platform. Headquarters: Fornebu, Akershus, Norway | Total Funding: $24.8M | Last Funding: May 21, 2026 Camera systems used in industrial, security, and scientific settings increasingly need to do more than simply capture footage; they need to interpret it in real time, a capability that depends as much on intelligent software as it does on the sensor itself. Muybridge is an imaging platform that develops software and sensors for cameras, pairing hardware with the AI-driven interpretation layer that modern camera applications increasingly require. The company has raised $24.8 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in May 2026, as it grows its imaging platform across industrial and scientific use cases. Headquarters: Oslo, Oslo, Norway | Total Funding: $28.4M | Last Funding: October 23, 2025 Building software applications that connect to real business data has traditionally required dedicated engineering resources that most teams, particularly outside of engineering departments, simply do not have. Riff positions itself as the first business-ready app builder for teams to create real AI apps that connect to data and get work done, extending app-building capability beyond dedicated development teams. The company has raised $28.4 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in October 2025, as it expands its AI app-building platform. Headquarters: Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark | Total Funding: $25.4M | Last Funding: April 15, 2026 Customer onboarding and regulatory compliance processes, particularly in financial services, involve extensive document review and verification work that grows more burdensome as regulatory requirements expand. spektr is a software platform that supports onboarding and regulatory compliance processes using artificial intelligence, automating verification and review work that has traditionally consumed significant compliance team capacity. The company has raised $25.4 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in April 2026, as it expands its compliance automation platform. Headquarters: Copenhagen, Hovedstaden, Denmark | Total Funding: $25.9M | Last Funding: September 9, 2025 Nursing staff shortages have left care teams stretched thin across hospitals and elder care facilities, with patient monitoring often limited to periodic manual checks rather than continuous observation. Teton is building what it describes as the ultimate AI nurse companion, aiming to give care teams a continuous layer of patient monitoring that periodic manual checks cannot provide. The company has raised $25.9 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in September 2025, as it expands its AI nurse companion platform across care settings. Headquarters: Stockholm, Stockholms Län, Sweden | Total Funding: $46.4M | Last Funding: March 5, 2026 Data teams increasingly depend on data lakes, warehouses, and real-time streams to power everything from analytics to AI models, but bad or inconsistent data flowing through those systems can quietly undermine everything built on top of it. VALIDIO offers a next-generation data platform for data lakes, warehouses, and real-time streams, built to catch data quality issues before they propagate into downstream analytics and AI systems. The company has raised $46.4 million in total funding, with its most recent round closing in March 2026, as it expands its data quality platform across enterprise data teams. This was a brief overview of the Nordics' rapidly expanding AI scale-up landscape. If there is a company you think belongs on this list, reach out to our editorial team and we will make sure they are included on the next one. Need deeper intelligence on the AI Market? 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Kelluu expands to Canada, brings persistent airship surveillance to the Arctic. Jul 27, 2026 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Ottawa, ON - July 27, 2026 - Kelluu, the Finnish company behind the world's largest autonomous airship fleet, is expanding into Canada. The new location is at Area X.O in Ottawa, Canada's national hub for defence innovation. It brings together world-class industry, government, the Canadian Armed Forces, and research institutions to accelerate the development and adoption of next-generation capabilities. "We are pleased to welcome Kelluu to Canada's defence and security ecosystem and look forward to strengthening collaboration between Canada and Finland as we advance innovation for Arctic security, resilience, and operational readiness," said Jens Michael Schaal, Vice President at Invest Ottawa. In a country where distances are vast and the climate is unforgiving, Kelluu's lighter-than-air technology is a natural fit. The company aims to advance Canadian Arctic autonomy with technology built and tested for cold conditions. "From day one, Invest Ottawa has made us feel welcome. Their expertise, local network, and hands-on support have been invaluable in getting Kelluu's Canadian operations off the ground," said Niko Kuikka, Kelluu's Head of Engineering. The expansion deepens the partnership between two Arctic nations. The move draws the countries' technology and defence ties closer together as both face new security challenges and Canada's role as a guardian of the Arctic grows. "Canada and Area X.O in Ottawa offer an ideal platform for growing a company like Kelluu. There's a ready-made ecosystem to step into here, and the right people to start building with quickly. Finland and Canada share a deep understanding of what it takes to operate in Arctic conditions. Our vision of persistent autonomy in Canada begins right here," said Janne Hietala, CEO of Kelluu. Canada is investing in security. At NATO's Hague summit, the country committed to raising its defence spending to five percent of GDP by 2035. Billions of that are earmarked for Arctic infrastructure and northern operations. Kelluu's technology has been tested in multiple NATO exercises. These have confirmed Kelluu's interoperability with NATO systems, its ability to build accurate situational awareness in GNSS-jammed areas, its operational capability in Arctic and highly demanding conditions, and functions such as serving as a mobile 5G base station. Kelluu was one of 15 companies selected from 2,600 applicants for the second phase of NATO's DIANA program, and is the only Finnish company funded by the NATO Innovation Fund. About Kelluu. Kelluu is a Finnish technology company that delivers persistent aerial autonomy as a service to customers in the defence, critical infrastructure and environmental sectors. It operates the world's largest fleet of autonomous airships and produces accurate real-time situational awareness and digital twins. The technology has been tested in Arctic conditions and in GNSS-denied environments. Randy Gaudreau Manager, Communications and Public Relations Invest Ottawa 613 828 6274 [email protected]