Mutable Tactics raises $2.1 million for AI drone coordination in satellite-denied environments

TAMPA, Fla. — British startup Mutable Tactics has raised $2.1 million in pre-seed funding to develop AI software enabling groups of military drones to operate autonomously, even when satellite navigation and communications are disrupted.

The funding round was led by Seraphim Space, which sees the technology as strengthening the resilience of space-enabled capabilities that its investments often rely on.

“The system uses space PNT [Position, Navigation and Timing] and communications when available offering better performance,” Seraphim Space investment principal Maureen Haverty said via email. 

“But then it elegantly transitions to space-degraded mode, which allows the drones to continue operating as a team when space connectivity is not available. We’re backing this as space investors because we think that negates the need for backup manual alternatives that we see in the market.” 

Haverty declined to comment on how the system coordinates operations without communications, but said “the entire architecture is built from the ground up to work within that communications-denied paradigm. Communications-denied is not a bolt-on like we see elsewhere.”

Mutable Tactics, founded in August 2024 by former British Army officer Colin MacLeod and robotics AI specialist Enrique Muñoz de Cote, plans to use the funds to expand its engineering team and accelerate software development for a range of unmanned systems, including aerial, maritime and ground drones.

The company said it is working to validate the technology with two European governments under real operational conditions, while also working with unmanned-system partners and preparing for live demonstrations in demanding environments.

MacLeod served on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he said he saw firsthand how technology can succeed or fail under pressure.

“Increasingly, the constraint is no longer hardware but human attention,” he said.

“We can deploy more drones than ever before, yet we still ask operators to control them one by one, often in environments where communications are unreliable. True autonomy breaks that one‑to‑one link, allowing humans to supervise and direct teams of systems rather than individual machines. 

“That shift is essential for supporting modern military missions, where scale, speed and resilience matter, and where operators must remain focused on intent and outcomes rather than manual control.”

The U.K.’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund also participated in the funding round, alongside investment firms Koro, Entrepreneurs First and Transpose.