A pioneer in autonomous drone-based observation, Rift is building an aerial intelligence infrastructure designed to protect national territories, critical infrastructure, and civilian populations.

Surveillance-as-a-Service for territories and critical infrastructure protection

Faced with growing geopolitical and climate risks that threaten critical infrastructure and borders, the need for long-range aerial surveillance is intensifying. Existing solutions remain costly and inefficient: an hour of helicopter flight can exceed €3,000 and requires permanent human deployment, forcing operators to limit missions and leave blind spots that undermine security and increase exposure to threats.

Rift provides an agile alternative, enabling the continuous monitoring of sensitive areas and critical infrastructure at a fraction of the cost. Its "Surveillance-as-a-Service" model transforms a historically costly market into a flexible, zero-CAPEX service, where clients (such as ministries, infrastructure operators, or industrial groups) get access to instant aerial surveillance capacity, while guaranteeing the sovereignty of the data collected.

Rift’s platform supports real-world missions such as detecting early wildfire outbreaks, monitoring highway accidents, tracking illegal border crossings, and overseeing pipelines, power lines, and railways for leaks or intrusions – providing authorities and operators with early aerial visibility and faster coordination across vast areas.

Rift’s integrated technology combines long-endurance VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) drones, autonomous deployment stations, and the RiftOS software platform. This approach allows for the centralisation of piloting at a single site, offering costs up to ten times lower than traditional methods and eliminating the need for 24/7 field teams.

Leveraging its proprietary detection technology and close collaboration with the DGAC and European authorities, Rift is strengthening its regulatory advantage, paving the way for long-range operations and large-scale deployment across Europe.

“Rift is building the missing link between ground teams and satellites, a network capable of instantly covering critical areas, without an operator on site, to provide real-time situational awareness where and when it matters most,” said Daniel Nef, Co-Founder and CEO, Rift. “Our ambition is to equip nations and organisations, starting with Europe, with a scalable aerial intelligence infrastructure that strengthens public safety, protects critical infrastructure, and reinforces strategic autonomy.”

Scaling up for European ambitions

With this round of funding, Rift will ramp up production of its autonomous drone stations, using innovative manufacturing processes that enable large-scale, cost-efficient production. Each shipping-container-sized station can host multiple drones operating in continuous relay, ensuring 24/7 aerial coverage.

In parallel, Rift is advancing its AI-driven analytics to automate the entire mission cycle by 2027, covering planning, execution, anomaly detection, and reporting without human intervention. This technology will open European airspace to autonomous operations and support the deployment of drone fleets for border surveillance and critical site protection, two sectors where responsiveness, continuity, and cost efficiency are now strategic imperatives.

In the medium term, Rift is preparing the deployment of its network on a European scale, prioritising sensitive zones where intrusions, sabotage, and threats demand increased vigilance.

Driven by a rapidly growing global drone market, the company is strengthening its industrial capacity and plans to double its workforce by the end of 2026, with key recruitments in R&D, data, certification, and production. Rift is already collaborating on pilot projects related to maritime and terrestrial surveillance with states and industrial partners.

"Rift is taking a key step in structuring the European aerial intelligence market, multiplying surveillance capabilities while significantly lowering costs," said Luc Ryan-Schreiber, Principal at AlleyCorp. "Rift's integration of hardware, software, and data into the same architecture has the opportunity to improve the security of state infrastructure and bring much-needed technological advancements to the detection and protection of key assets."

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