Polar Mist Technologies is a Swedish defense tech startup founded in 2023 and headquartered in Lund, building full-stack autonomous unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) for European maritime defense. The company's flagship platform, Semper, is designed for mass production, is payload-agnostic, and capable of comms-dark operation — meaning onboard AI enables autonomous mission completion without satellite navigation or communications links. Its breakthrough optical, GPS-free positioning system does not drift over time, making it resilient to jamming that renders traditional GNSS-dependent systems vulnerable.

Polar Mist was co-founded by Gustaf von Grothusen (an engineering physics graduate of Lund University and former Swedish Armed Forces marine serving on Combat Boat 90) alongside Gabriel Vasquez and Professor Andreas Jakobsson of Lund University. The team fuses hands-on military operational know-how with advanced AI and signal-processing expertise to build cost-effective maritime deterrence at scale. The platform supports ISR, electronic warfare, cUAS, logistics, and strike mission payloads, with interchangeable modules requiring no hull redesign.

Polar Mist emerged from two years of stealth development in April 2025, announcing its first funding round co-led by 201 Ventures (former CIA officer Eric Slesinger's VC firm) and Air Street Capital. In 2026, the company partnered with Delian Alliance Industries to integrate Delian's M4K15 electronic warfare and cUAS suite onto the Semper platform, and participated in NATO's REPMUS 2026 exercise in Portugal — integrating SEA.AI machine vision into its sensor stack. The company also signed a Letter of Intent with Nordic Air Defence to mount the Kreuger 100XR drone interceptor on its USV, and was named to Resilience Media's 100 Startups to Watch in 2026.