SYOS Aerospace has completed its first institutional capital raising, with a fundraising round co-led by NZVC and Outset Ventures and supported by Altered Capital and undisclosed strategic funds.
The company said the funding will be used to accelerate research and development, expand production capacity, and support international growth. The terms of the round, structured as a convertible note, were not disclosed.
SYOS manufactures autonomous uncrewed vehicles operating across air, land, sea and underwater domains, supported by its proprietary AAIMS (Autonomy and Augmented Intelligence Mission System) software. The company said customers can deploy a single vehicle or operate multiple platforms together using a common autonomy layer.
The raise follows five years of growth that SYOS said was funded through customer contracts, including a £30m agreement in 2025 with the UK Ministry of Defence. The company said it has secured multiple contracts delivering to various nations, including the UK, Ukraine, New Zealand and Canada.
SYOS is jointly headquartered in the UK and New Zealand and was founded in 2021 in Mount Maunganui. It said it won its first contracts in 2023 via competitive tenders to the UK Ministry of Defence and now operates across NATO and the Indo-Pacific region.
CEO and founder Sam Vye said the capital would be used to expand the company’s footprint and increase production capacity to meet demand.
SYOS said it employs almost 200 people, with R&D and manufacturing sites in Fareham in the UK and in New Zealand, and maintains a presence in Ukraine. The company said it secured a sovereign defence contract with the New Zealand Defence Force in February 2026 to provide a suite of uncrewed vehicles for experimentation, along with services and training.
In March 2026, SYOS said its SA200 uncrewed heavy-lift helicopter completed fully autonomous mission trials, including take-off and landing from a moving platform. In May 2026, it said it launched the SU10 uncrewed underwater vehicle designed to be paired with its uncrewed surface vessel offering.
NZVC General Partner Mark Pavlyukovskyy said the firm would support SYOS as it scales production in the UK and New Zealand. Outset Ventures Managing Partner Angus Blair, who is joining the SYOS board, said the company had delivered capability across NATO and the Indo-Pacific.
