Aventra unveils GPS-free balloon-dropped precision strike tech

Defense tech startup Aventra has emerged from stealth mode, announcing a $3 million seed round led by Lavrock Ventures. The company’s breakthrough technology aims to transform unguided munitions into AI-powered weapons capable of striking targets up to 3,000 miles away-without relying on GPS.

Founded by former US Army officers and defense tech entrepreneurs Michael Weigand, Brian Retherford, and Jessup Meng, Aventra’s modular guidance kits are designed to meet the growing need for scalable, low-cost strike capabilities in peer adversary conflicts.

Their flagship system, the Piranha glider kit, wraps wings and guidance modules around existing munitions, enabling deployment via balloons at 80,000 feet, harnessing stratospheric winds to reach distant targets some 1,000 km away.

“With continuous launches, it degrades and disrupts soft targets to overwhelm adversaries at scale,” the website says.

Unlike traditional cruise missiles, which are expensive and limited in quantity, Aventra’s kits cost 100 to 400 times less, allowing for sustained mass fires. The system’s AI-powered terminal guidance operates independently of GPS, making it resilient against electronic warfare and jamming-an increasingly critical feature in modern battlefields like Ukraine, where GPS denial is commonplace.

"The US government has made clear the urgent need for affordable, rapidly deployable weapons that can operate in contested and degraded environments," said Michael Weigand, Aventra Co-founder and CEO. "Our extensive firsthand experience working with operators both domestically and directly on the front lines in Ukraine has validated this demand signal. We've seen how conflicts are won through speed, volume, and persistence, and our technology finally makes that economically viable for American forces."

The kits are compatible with both kinetic warheads and non-kinetic payloads, including electronic warfare packages. This flexibility allows forces to conduct precision strikes, harassment fires, and multi-domain operations from distributed, austere environments-without the need for heavy infrastructure.

“The system's high-altitude deployment provides unique attack vectors that circumvent traditional air defense detection and interception, while simple assembly and deployment enable distributed operations from austere environments without heavy infrastructure requirements,” read the press release.

The announcement comes on the heels of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s directive, “Unleashing US Military Drone Dominance,” which calls for scaling domestic drone production and criticizes delays in fielding affordable systems. Aventra’s technology appears to align squarely with this vision.

Lavrock Ventures Partner Alex Poulin praised the founding team’s blend of direct combat experience and technical ingenuity.

According to the press release, the team’s collective background spans leading defense startups, hands-on combat operations, and developing innovative solutions for modern warfare requirements that provides the technical depth and operational understanding essential for delivering mission-critical capabilities to military customers.

“They understand both the battlefield realities driving demand for distributed fires and the engineering challenges of delivering reliable, cost-effective solutions at scale. Their depth of experience across operations and technology makes them uniquely positioned to solve one of defense's most pressing problems,” Poulin said.

With seed funding secured, Aventra plans to accelerate product development, expand testing operations, and grow its team to meet evolving defense requirements.