Kraus Hamdani Aerospace (KHA) builds electric autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that deliver persistent surveillance, resilient communications, and AI-driven decision support for defense and critical infrastructure. Its platform integrates ultra-long-endurance electric flight, self-healing mesh networking, and regenerative AI into a single autonomous system that stays aloft for days and adapts in real time, delivering persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). The company sits at the center of the most urgent transformation in defense: persistent ISR, resilient communications, and autonomous decision-making in contested environments. KHA has built deep traction with top defense stakeholders and is now the only provider of persistent airborne communications and multi-day electric endurance capabilities to several prime contractors. Designed from the ground up, KHA’s platform uses lightweight materials, proprietary solar film technology, and advanced electric propulsion to outperform gas-powered peers in endurance, altitude, and adaptability. KHA’s systems do not carry weapons and serve purely as intelligence, communications, and decision-support assets. As a triple-bottom-line company, its mission is to save lives by closing the gap between data and decision-making.
Due to our longstanding six-year relationship with the founders, Kraus Hamdani Aerospace is opening its preferred-term convertible note exclusively to our members at a $40M pre-money valuation cap or a 20% discount to the next round, whichever is lower. KHA is providing this unique access for the convertible note capital raise that precedes a minimum $35M Series A planned for mid 2026.
As a one of a kind unmanned aerial vehicle system, KHA operates in the airspace between low-altitude commercial drones and high-altitude military assets, providing a continuous communication and reconnaissance layer that keeps units connected when infrastructure is degraded or absent. Its fleet-based architecture allows each aircraft to work collaboratively, repositioning automatically if one node goes offline and maintaining coverage across hundreds of kilometers. The company is expanding partnerships with allied nations and critical infrastructure operators that require resilient, autonomous communication layers capable of remaining operational when ground networks fail.
Please see the explainer video below for an overview of KHA as the leading UAS platform.
The company is on track to close the year with nearly $30M in revenue, driven by a capital-efficient model that leverages government programs, joint exercises, and real-world deployments rather than heavy infrastructure spending. Looking ahead, KHA is positioned to become the foundational operating layer for autonomous intelligence and secure communications across defense, humanitarian missions, and critical infrastructure.
More information on the terms of the round can be found in the ‘Capitalization & Current Raise’ Section below.
INVESTMENT TIMELINE
Virtual Company Presentation
Tuesday, December 9th, 2025
12:00 pm ET // 9:00 am PT
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Final Investment Commitments Due
Monday, December 15th, 2025
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Funding & Documents Due
Thursday, December 18th, 2025
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The Company's confidential financing documents and diligence materials are available for review in Carta. Please request access to data room materials at the top of the page. All documents are confidential and not for further distribution. Plum Alley Ventures reserves the right to not proceed with the investment opportunity if the $500,000 syndication minimum is not met.
* Massive Transformation in Defense Autonomy & ISR: Modern defense strategy is shifting toward distributed, autonomous, and resilient operations. Persistent ISR and assured communications are now top priorities for the Department of Defense (DoD), especially in contested environments across the Indo-Pacific and Middle East. Traditional systems lack the endurance, survivability, and autonomy required for these missions. KHA targets this gap with ultra-long-endurance aircraft and regenerative AI that maintain ISR coverage, connectivity, and decision support in settings where legacy platforms fail.
* Unmatched Operational Validation Across Global Theaters: KHA’s systems are not theoretical. They have flown 141,148 operational miles across real deployments in the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and major US training centers. The platform has performed under sandstorms, maritime humidity, electromagnetic interference, and GPS degradation. This level of global, high-stress validation is rare for a company at KHA’s stage and establishes performance credibility that primes, integrators, and frontline operators trust.
* World-Record Endurance & Category-Leading Technology: The K1000ULE holds the world endurance record for Group 2 unmanned aircraft at more than 75 hours of continuous flight, compared to roughly 90 minutes from its closest competitor. This capability creates mission profiles that no competing platform can match, including multi-day ISR coverage, long-range border security, and deep-area communications relay. Combined with a self-healing multi-waveform tactical communications system, a regenerative multi-domain autonomy stack, KHA offers a technology suite unmatched in endurance, connectivity, and autonomy.
* Strategic Positioning for Scalable Government Adoption: KHA is directly aligned with top modernization efforts across the US Army, Navy, and Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC). The company has been selected for multiple Programs of Record and secured one of the Army’s largest APFIT awards to date. These programs represent long-term procurement pathways that can scale from initial deployments to fleet-wide fielding over multi-year cycles. Its capital-efficient model with extremely low capitalization rate strengthens this advantage by using government programs and joint exercises for validation and scale, avoiding the heavy infrastructure burden typical of aerospace companies. This approach also enables KHA to expand alongside Programs of Record without overhead required by traditional defense primes.
* Diversified Revenue Engine With High-Margin AI Upside: The company sells "all-in" kits that include a pair of aircraft, ground control management, a maintenance service package, and a basic operator course. The revenue mix includes hardware delivery, maintenance, subscriptions, and AI-driven intelligence and swarming services. This blended model creates a durable revenue engine with contributions from high-margin software, recurring communications subscriptions, and expanding hardware procurement.
To learn more, please watch the recent Skapa Podcast episode featuring Fatema Hamdani, which highlights her vision for the future of UAS. The host, Captain Michael Brasseur, is one of the most influential voices in autonomous defense technology, best known for founding and commanding Task Force 59, the U.S. Navy’s first unmanned and AI task force. He spent 26 years leading cutting-edge operations across the Navy, Pentagon, White House, and NATO before becoming Chief Strategy Officer at Saab, where he shapes the future of robotics and intelligent defense systems. His perspective brings rare operational credibility from the front lines of autonomy, maritime innovation, and next-generation warfare.
Industry Shifts in Cybersecurity, Communications, & Defense Technologies
Global security, communications, and defense technologies are undergoing their most significant paradigm shift in decades. Conflicts across the Indo-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East have exposed a severe capability gap in how militaries gather intelligence, maintain communications, and coordinate decisions in contested environments. Forces today must operate across vast distances while facing electronic warfare, GPS degradation, and increasingly sophisticated adversaries. Traditional aircraft and legacy unmanned systems lack the endurance, survivability, and autonomy required for these missions, leaving frontline units without persistent awareness or reliable communications when they need them most in today’s high-tempo, distributed environment. This has made long-endurance unmanned systems, resilient communications, and AI-enabled decision support top priorities for the US DoD.
Demand is accelerating as the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) shift towards distributed operations. These concepts require platforms that can stay airborne for days, connect units across denied environments, and make autonomous decisions without constant operator input. Yet the market remains underserved. The DoD categorizes unmanned aircraft into Groups 1 through 5, with Groups 1 to 3 representing the backbone of tactical ISR.
Group 1 systems are small, short-range drones used for localized awareness. Group 2 aircraft add greater endurance and payload but typically remain limited to a few hours of flight. Group 3 platforms operate at higher altitudes with expanded mission profiles but still require constant operator control and substantial support infrastructure. Most Group 2 and Group 3 unmanned aircraft can fly for only a few hours, lack resilient communications, and depend heavily on human operators. The result is limited coverage, high manpower requirements, and significant operational risk. Militaries now recognize that the future of ISR and tactical decision-making must be autonomous, persistent, and resilient.
The gap is further widened by accelerating cyber threats. Adversaries are targeting ground networks, satellites, and command-and-control systems with jamming, spoofing, and cyber intrusion. When communications fail, modern operations grind to a halt. This has elevated airborne mesh networks, resilient communication layers, and autonomous decision support to top modernization priorities across the DoD. Programs such as APFIT, Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER), Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO), Replicator, and Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) are pouring funding into these areas, seeking systems that can operate without dependency on fragile infrastructure.
Taken together, these shifts mark a decisive moment in defense technology. The world is moving away from fuel-heavy, operator-heavy, short-endurance aircraft and toward fully autonomous, long-endurance systems that can serve as the connective tissue of distributed operations. Persistent airborne networks, self-healing communications, and AI-enabled sensing will define the next generation of intelligence, surveillance, and decision-making. The companies capable of delivering these capabilities will sit at the center of a multi-decade transformation in defense, cyber resilience, and global security.
Inadequate Infrastructure
When communications fail, missions fail. The backbone of modern defense, humanitarian response, and critical infrastructure protection is reliable connectivity. Today, that backbone is fragile. The US relies heavily on the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN), a powerful but extremely expensive airborne relay system mounted on high-altitude jets like the E-11A. BACN provides critical “airborne Wi-Fi” for the battlefield, yet it costs hundreds of millions per aircraft, requires runways and heavy logistics, and cannot deliver persistent multi-day coverage. KHA is solving this problem with a platform that exceeds BACN-like capabilities at a fraction of the cost.
When communications fail, missions fail. Connectivity is the backbone of modern defense, humanitarian response, and critical infrastructure protection, yet today that backbone is fragile. The US relies heavily on the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) to provide critical “airborne Wi-Fi” that while powerful is extremely expensive. BACN is a high-altitude relay system mounted on jets like the E-11A that costs hundreds of millions per aircraft, requires runways, and cannot provide persistent multi-day coverage. At the same time, most unmanned systems on the market (e.g., small drones from AeroVironment, Parrot, Red Cat, and Dragonfly UAS or mid-tier Group 2 and 3 platforms) were designed for short flights, light workloads, and constant operator oversight. They lack the endurance, autonomy, and communications resilience required for today’s contested and distributed missions.
Commercial drones last minutes, not days. Mid-tier systems burn fuel quickly, depend on constant human oversight, and offer limited communications resilience. Even advanced platforms from major defense primes struggle to adapt when infrastructure is degraded. Industrial players, such as Ondas Holdings, remain tethered to fixed networks that fail in contested environments. The gap between what missions require and what current systems deliver continues to widen.
KHA closes this gap with an autonomous airborne platform that provides BACN-like communications capability at a fraction of the cost while delivering multi-day persistence that high-altitude jets cannot match.
The Next Generation
Kraus Hamdani Aerospace is building the autonomous operating system for the skies. The company’s electric ultra-long-endurance aircraft create a persistent layer of intelligence and connectivity that keeps people safe when communications fail, when infrastructure collapses, and when every second counts. KHA’s autonomous unmanned systems stay airborne for days, form self-healing communication networks across entire regions, and use AI to sense, adapt, and support decisions in real time.
KHA operates in the critical airspace between small commercial drones and high-altitude military assets, delivering the continuous coverage that modern missions require but existing systems cannot provide. It is the first system to bring BACN-level connectivity down to a Group 2 footprint, turning persistent airborne networks from a strategic luxury into an accessible, scalable operational asset. Each aircraft functions as part of an intelligent fleet that repositions itself automatically, maintains secure communications across hundreds of kilometers, and provides uninterrupted awareness in contested or remote environments.
Built from the ground up with advanced electric propulsion, proprietary solar film technology, and mission-ready autonomy, KHA outperforms legacy platforms in endurance, altitude, and adaptability. The company’s systems do not carry weapons. They serve one purpose: to extend the reach, safety, and resilience of defense, humanitarian, and critical infrastructure teams anywhere in the world.
Founded in 2016, KHA has built a differentiated technology stack that no competitor matches. The K1000ULE is the world’s longest-endurance fully electric unmanned aerial system. ATNE++, short for Aerial Tier Network Extension, delivers self-healing tactical communications. MD-ACT, the company’s Multi-Domain Autonomous Collaborative Teaming platform, provides regenerative AI autonomy and real-time coordination. Together, these systems create persistent ISR, assured connectivity, and AI-driven synchronization across sea, land, and air. These capabilities are already trusted by the US Army, Navy, MARSOC, and Customs and Border Patrol along with commercial partners, including Shell’s Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).
KHA’s real-world performance sets it apart. The platform has flown 141,148 miles across global theaters, from US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) to the Middle East and major US training centers, and has proven durability, endurance, and autonomy in harsh, contested, and denied conditions. KHA also set the world endurance record for Group 2 UAS with a flight exceeding 75 hours, validating a core technical advantage that competitors can’t replicate.
Financial traction reinforces this operational edge. KHA posted $18.2M revenue and $5.8M EBITDA in 2024 and is on pace for $27.9M revenue and $3.9M EBITDA in 2025. The pipeline continues to scale across hardware production, maintenance and support, ATNE++ subscriptions, and AI-driven intelligence and swarming services. This mix of high-margin software, recurring communications revenue, and increasing hardware procurement creates a durable, multi-channel growth engine. KHA operates with a capital-efficient model built around deep government partnerships, multi-year procurement cycles, and validated field deployments. The company has already proven it can deliver at the tactical edge, and it is now positioned to scale across major Programs of Record.
KHA’s Integrated Advantage
KHA fills this gap by integrating ultra-long-endurance electric flight, resilient mesh networking, and regenerative AI into a single autonomous platform purpose-built for modern operations. The system stays aloft for days, forms a self-healing airborne network across hundreds of kilometers, and adapts autonomously to mission needs without relying on fuel logistics or constant human oversight. It does not carry weapons and serves as an intelligence, communications, and decision-support layer that keeps teams connected and informed when other systems fail.
The company’s operational record validates this architecture. KHA aircraft have flown more than 140K+ miles across the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and major US training centers including Project Convergence, the Joint Readiness Training Center, the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment, Balikatan, and Valiant Shield. These deployments demonstrated reliable performance in electromagnetic interference, extreme heat, maritime humidity, and long-range missions for US Customs and Border Patrol. The K1000ULE also holds the world endurance record for Group 2 aircraft with a flight exceeding 75 hours, a benchmark no competitor has approached.
Government demand mirrors this momentum. The DoD is actively funding autonomous systems, multi-domain operations (MDO), and resilient communications. Indo-Pacific requirements continue to drive urgent demand for persistent ISR and distributed communications across thousands of miles. International partners are accelerating unmanned modernization and prioritizing platforms that can operate at long range with minimal infrastructure. The convergence of geopolitical urgency, technology maturity, and procurement alignment places KHA at the center of the next generation of autonomous and unmanned capabilities. These programs create multi-year procurement pathways that move from prototype evaluation to full-rate production, providing long-term revenue visibility.
KHA is not only delivering proven systems. It is solving one of the hardest operational problems in defense autonomy: how to sustain ISR, maintain connectivity, and coordinate action in environments where communications fail, operators are overloaded, and traditional platforms cannot persist. By uniting endurance, resilience, and autonomy into a single standardized platform, the company is building the backbone for distributed operations and emerging as a foundational player in future ISR and tactical decision ecosystems. With validated performance, accelerating procurement momentum, and alignment with top modernization priorities, KHA is positioned to shape a new era of autonomous MDO for the United States and its allies.
The global defense autonomy and ISR market is a rapidly expanding multi-billion-dollar opportunity driven by rising geopolitical tensions, contested communications, and the shift toward unmanned, distributed operations. Persistent ISR, resilient communications, and autonomous decision support together form a $280B Total Addressable Market (TAM) as the US and allied militaries modernize for Indo-Pacific and near-peer threats.
With US defense spending exceeding $880B in 2024 and unmanned systems, AI-enabled autonomy, and tactical communications among its fastest-growing segments, KHA sits directly within multiple funded procurement lanes. The company’s addressable market spans ISR and communications budgets across the US Army, US Navy, US Marine Corps, SOCOM, US Customs and Border Protection, and international defense ministries. Within this landscape, KHA targets Group 2 and Group 3 UAS replacement programs, airborne network modernization, and AI-enabled command and control, positioning itself to capture meaningful share through Programs of Record, multi-year procurement, and recurring AI and communications subscriptions. Beyond defense, KHA’s technology also extends to commercial markets such as oil and gas monitoring, emergency communications, disaster response, environmental and climate data collection, and critical infrastructure resilience. Together, these sectors represent a broad and durable set of end markets that require persistent sensing, resilient networking, and autonomous decision support.
KHA has built a fully integrated platform that combines ultra long-endurance aircraft, resilient communications, and regenerative AI into a single operational system that keeps missions running when everything else breaks. The result is persistent ISR, assured connectivity, and autonomous mission execution in environments where traditional systems fail.
The Platform’s Capabilities
1) Multi Domain Autonomous Collaborative Teaming (MD-ACT)
MD-ACT is the AI “brain” of the platform. It is a regenerative AI operating system for multi-domain, manned and unmanned teaming that distributes cognition and tasking across platforms. MD-ACT performs three core AI functions:
This reduces cognitive load on operators, increases decision-making speed, and allows assets to operate cohesively across domains (e.g., sea, land, and air), even when disconnected from ground control.
2) Ultra Long-Endurance UAS (K1000ULE)
The K1000ULE is the world’s longest-endurance fully electric Group 2 unmanned aerial system. It is designed to provide uninterrupted coverage as an airborne overwatch, communications node, or long-range sensor platform in contested, disconnected, or remote regions.
The system has proven more than 75 hours of continuous flight endurance, operates in extreme environments, and integrates directly with AI-enabled capabilities. This reduces the need for frequent redeployments or aircraft handoff and allows a single platform to support multi-day missions that would otherwise require multiple sorties and operators.
3) Aerial Tier Network Extension (ATNE++)
ATNE++ provides the aerial tier of a resilient mesh network. It delivers self-healing, multi-waveform tactical communications that extend and bridge disparate voice and data networks across rugged terrain, mountain ranges, dense foliage, and contested spectrum.
The system dynamically adjusts communication methods in real time, maintains tactical interoperability between legacy and modern systems, and keeps units connected even when terrestrial infrastructure is degraded or destroyed. ATNE++ has been validated by Army Futures Command and Future Vertical Lift leadership as a critical requirement for network extension in contested environments and has supported operations with more than 2K personnel per exercise.
How the Platform Works
In a typical mission, the K1000ULE is launched with a tailored payload suite that can include ISR sensors, communications relays, and electronic support packages. Once airborne, the aircraft climbs to altitude and establishes an aerial network extension using ATNE++. The platform begins bridging ground, maritime, and airborne nodes into a single resilient mesh, connecting units that were previously isolated by terrain, distance, or contested spectrum.
As the mission unfolds, MD-ACT continuously ingests sensor feeds, communications data, and environmental information. AI problem solving tasks aircraft and other unmanned assets to reposition, expand coverage, or investigate emerging threats. AI communications monitors network performance and autonomously adjusts waveforms and routes to maintain connectivity across units and command centers. AI data decisioning fuses ISR streams, identifies and qualifies threats, and triggers follow-on actions, such as retasking a platform for closer inspection or handing targeting data to manned aircraft or ground units.
Throughout the operation, the system runs with minimal operator intervention. Operators focus on mission objectives while MD-ACT and ATNE++ manage the complexity of asset coordination and network integrity. In large-scale exercises, KHA’s systems have integrated into Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) frameworks, provided real-time ISR and communications relay, and enabled autonomous “follow me” communications in dynamic battlespace conditions. The end result is continuous ISR coverage, resilient communications, and AI-driven mission execution that persists through blackouts, electronic attack, and infrastructure failure.
Platform Architecture & Roadmap
KHA’s platform is designed as an end-to-end stack that spans aircraft, communications, and AI:
As more aircraft are fielded and more missions are flown, MD-ACT’s regenerative AI has the potential to compound in value, learning from real-world deployments and further improving autonomy, communications, and decision-making across KHA’s installed base.
Unique Open Source Development Model
KHA pairs an open source software strategy with a deeply protected hardware and endurance IP portfolio. The core intellectual property sits in the aircraft itself: the wing geometry and wingspan that enable multi-day flight, the patented continuous aerial flight architecture powered by KHA’s proprietary solar-film recharging system, and the physical airframe design that allows the platform to self-charge in flight. These elements form one of KHA’s strongest moats. Even if a competitor had access to the open source code, they would still need to build a non-infringing airframe capable of matching KHA’s endurance and avoid violating patents tied to the aircraft’s long-haul structure and regenerative flight capability. Reproducing the software without the hardware is meaningless, and reproducing the hardware without infringing on the IP is nearly impossible. The open source strategy accelerates product iteration while strengthening the ecosystem around KHA’s specifications. By making portions of the software stack openly available, developers and partners can test, refine, and contribute at speeds incumbents cannot match, mirroring strategies used by Google, Microsoft, Meta, Red Hat, etc. Mission data remains private and secure; only the code base and standards are open. This model encourages innovation but still concentrates practical control with KHA because their patented hardware and proprietary solar-recharge system are required for the software to matter in the real world.
Commercial Model & Access Strategy
KHA’s business model is designed to scale efficiently across US and international defense, security, and critical-infrastructure markets. The company generates revenue through a mix of hardware sales, services, subscriptions, and software licensing, creating a diversified engine that grows with each deployed aircraft. KHA’s model aligns tightly with how defense procurement cycles operate: initial prototype deployments, pilot exercises, and theater evaluations transition into multi-year Programs of Record that scale production and drive recurring revenue.
This structure provides predictable, multi-channel revenue that improves with every fleet expansion and each new government program that adopts KHA’s system. The revenue pipeline forecasts total revenue scaling from $18.2M in 2024 to $515.5M in 2030, with a roughly 50% split between hardware and services/licensing over time.
KHA’s revenue mix includes:
Strategic Partnerships
KHA leverages strong government partnerships and multi-theater operational exercises to accelerate adoption. The company is embedded in key US Army modernization pathways, including multi-domain operations through the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, which selected KHA to solve deep-sensing problems in the South China Sea area of operations. Participation in Project Convergence, Balikatan, Valiant Shield, and INDOPACOM exercises allows KHA to integrate directly with joint-force systems and shorten procurement timelines.
Economic Rationale
KHA delivers a step-change in operational efficiency by reducing the cost, manpower burden, and risk associated with legacy unmanned systems. Most Group 2 and Group 3 UAVs fly only a few hours, require multiple operators, and depend on fragile ground infrastructure. The K1000ULE, with more than 75 hours of endurance, consolidates what would otherwise require numerous sorties into a single multi-day mission.
This endurance reduces:
ATNE++ strengthens this economic advantage by removing dependence on fixed communications infrastructure. It provides a self-healing airborne mesh that replaces towers, repeaters, and vulnerable SATCOM links during operations. MD-ACT compounds these efficiencies by reducing the cognitive and manpower burden required to manage multi-platform operations. Its autonomy stack handles route planning, sensor coordination, and threat validation across assets.
KHA’s communications and autonomy systems integrate with both legacy and modern radios and data links, enabling rapid adoption without new infrastructure investments. The result is a platform that lowers operational cost, expands mission readiness, and replaces dozens of short-duration missions with a single persistent, autonomous deployment. This combination of performance and cost efficiency positions KHA to capture significant share as militaries scale autonomous ISR and communications capabilities.
Go-To-Market Strategy
KHA’s commercialization strategy follows a two-phase approach aligned with defense procurement timelines and operational requirements.
Phase 1: Deployment and Integration (0-24 months)
Phase 2: Program of Record Expansion (24-60 months)
This staged approach allows KHA to build operational credibility early, then scale rapidly as Programs of Record mature.
Competitive Landscape
The unmanned systems market is fragmented across short-endurance drones, standalone radios, and isolated autonomy tools. Most Group 2 platforms fly only 2 to 8 hours, rely on vulnerable line-of-sight communications, and require continuous operator control. Competitors typically solve only one piece of the puzzle: endurance without autonomy, autonomy without communications, or communications without persistence, leaving critical capability gaps in contested or infrastructure-poor environments.
For example, below are a few peers who tackle specific business cases:
Across these competitors, endurance, communications, and autonomy are rarely combined into a single, integrated platform:
Where peers typically deliver airframes, radios, or autonomy as separate pieces, KHA is positioning itself as the endurance, communications, and AI platform for defense and critical infrastructure: a persistent, electric, non-weaponized UAS layer that keeps units connected and informed in the most challenging environments.
Kraus Hamdani Aerospace is opening its preferred-term convertible note exclusively to Plum Alley members at a $40M pre-money valuation cap or 20% discount to the next financing, whichever is lower. This raise precedes a minimum $35M Series A and is designed to fund immediate execution on high-confidence, near-term contracts while positioning the company for a significant scale-up cycle.
KHA’s near-term pipeline includes $66M in weighted revenue, anchored by two critical programs: the Panamanian contract for two aircraft and the initial US Air Force contract for five aircraft. The Panamanian contract must be fulfilled before the end of 2025 to secure committed funding from the US, making timely delivery essential. The company is seeking ~$2M in immediate capital to execute both programs without delay. Completing these deliveries unlocks substantial follow-on opportunities and ensures that future capital requirements are driven by growth acceleration rather than immediate operational needs.
The note reflects strong institutional confidence in KHA’s technical and commercial momentum, underscored by its selection for multiple Programs of Record, a $20M APFIT award from the US Army, and deep traction with major defense stakeholders and Prime contractors. The company has also secured non-dilutive government funding tied to field deployments, testing campaigns, and capability expansion. This blended capital structure supports rapid progress across manufacturing, autonomy development, and ATNE++ deployments while minimizing dilution and preserving strategic flexibility ahead of the Series A.
Fatema Hamdani, Co-Founder and CEO: Fatema is a global technology leader with more than 25 years of experience in advanced communications and high-altitude platforms and deep expertise in defense innovation, international strategy, and scaled deployment of mission-critical systems. She previously served as Co-Founder and President of Dragonfly United, held senior roles at Syniverse supporting blue-chip companies with large-scale connectivity solutions, and is a current Executive Board Member of the High Altitude Platform Station Alliance. Fatema has been profiled by Forbes for her vision of using autonomous, ultra-long-endurance drones to save lives, restore communications, and collect critical data across extreme environments, including the stratosphere. At KHA, she leads strategy, partnerships, and global expansion, bringing a rare combination of technical credibility, operational discipline, and mission-driven leadership that positions the company to scale across defense, humanitarian, and commercial domains.
Stefan Kraus, Co-Founder and CTO: Stefan is an aerospace innovator and repeat founder with more than 20 years of experience building high-performance unmanned aircraft, advanced propulsion systems, and mission-critical software platforms. He previously founded two companies that were acquired, including First Performance, a payments security platform purchased by Mastercard, and Cubico, Southern Africa’s largest vulnerability-management provider. At KHA, Stefan leads the company’s vision, engineering, and platform architecture. He guided the creation of the K1000ULE, which set the world endurance record for Group 2 unmanned aircraft. He continues to drive the integration of ultra-long-endurance systems, autonomous teaming, and resilient communications for the US DoD and allied partners.
Advisory & Strategic Leadership: KHA receives guidance from senior advisors across defense autonomy, tactical communications, aerospace engineering, and US national security. The advisory group includes former senior leaders from the US Army, SOCOM, major defense primes, and advanced research organizations focused on AI-enabled operations and next-generation ISR. This collective expertise supports KHA’s transition from breakthrough engineering to scaled deployment across programs of record and global operational theaters.
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