The pictures were shocking. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian Government shared a video on social media showing a drone pursuing a street vendor on a city street in the Kherson region of the country. The video ended with an explosion that came close to killing the trader, in an attack Ukraine said was an example of Russia’s aggression against its civilians.

The incident is just one example of the way in which modern drone technology is changing the face of warfare. And Daniel Kofman, the co-founder and CEO of California-based Mara , says first-person view (FPV) drones are a particularly worrying problem. These small and inexpensive devices, now being mass-produced in countries worldwide, are incredibly difficult to defend against, Kofman warns. To date, the counter-drone industry has instead largely focused on a different target: large drones flying high overhead on a predictable course.

Mara, which is today announcing the successful completion of a $7 million pre-seed funding round, hopes its automated counter-drone system, known as Spike, will begin to turn the tide. Kofman and co-founder Srirarm Raghu founded Mara in October 2024 with the aim of developing technology to counter FPV drones specifically. Spike, which has just completed rounds of live field testing in the US and in Europe, is the fruit of their labor.

“Two curves have crossed,” explains Kofman. “On the threat side, FPV drones have gone from being a niche tactic to becoming the leading cause of combat casualties, and examples such as Ukraine’s recent Operation Spiderweb proved they can strike thousands of kilometers beyond any front line. On response, the US Army alone is asking for nearly $1 billion a year for counter-small-drone procurement.”

The problem is that developing a system capable of dealing with the FPV drone threat has proved challenging. Traditional counter-drone systems point one sensor and one weapon in one direction at a time; that can work well against a single large drone on a predictable path, but is much less effective against remotely-controlled small drones, often dispatched in swarms or groups approaching targets from different angles.

Spike therefore offers an alternative solution. It incorporates detection and tracking sensors to identify incoming FPV drone threats and a small, fast-moving interceptor drone that can bring them down. The system can be programmed so that the interceptor drone operates autonomously and can be fired from fixed bases or mounted on moving vehicles or even with individual troops.

Importantly, argues Kofman, Spike is much more affordable than large counter-drone devices, with the expense of implementing such defenses also having become a major problem for military budgets. The interceptor drones are “cheap enough to be expendable”, he explains. “Spike has a system cost below the asset being protected – the economics match the threat instead of exceeding it a thousand-fold.”

As for effectiveness, Mara’s live field testing has been promising. The company now holds R&D and testing agreements with three US defense organizations, was selected for Nato’s DIANA innovation accelerator, and is in early-stage engagements with military partners in the UK, Czechia and Ukraine. It’s also run a pilot scheme with a port operator in South Korea, with Kofman and Raghu eyeing civilian customers as well as military buyers.

Clearly, the start-up is tapping into a valuable market opportunity. The global anti-drone market is on track to nearly triple in size over the next five years, according to a report just published by MarketsandMarkets . It thinks the market was worth $4.5 billion in 2025 and expects that to grow to $14.5 billion by 2030.

Moreover, while major defense contractors including RTX Corporation, Thales Group and BAE Systems have all recognized the need for new products that focus on the FPV threat specifically, innovation is at a relatively early stage. Until now, the market has largely been dominated by solutions aimed at countering large drones.

Today’s fundraising will help Mara exploit this opportunity more rapidly, including expanding its manufacturing capacity. The $7 million round is led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Palmdrive, Zee Prime Capital, Protagonist, Freedom Fund and Indicator Fund, as well as a group of angel investors.

“Mara has moved rapidly from proof-of-concept to user testing for an autonomous system,” says Nicole Fraenkel, partner at Khosla Ventures. “What caught my eye is that they’re building counter-drone autonomy with a system cost that’s orders of magnitude lower than anything else we’ve seen.”