Defence tech made in Croatia: Taylor Wessing Germany and Taylor Wessing Ireland advise Lightspeed on financing in drone start-up Orqa

Croatian start-up Orqa has raised €5.8 million in its first round of seed financing. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (‘Lightspeed’), with participation from additional funders Radius Capital and Decisive Point, as well as existing investor Day One Capital. Lightspeed was comprehensively advised on all legal aspects of the transaction by a Taylor Wessing team from Ireland and Germany led by Berlin-based VC partner Dr Norman Röchert and in collaboration with legal advisors from Croatian law firm VUKMIR + ASSOCIATES.

Founded in 2017 in Osijek, technology company Orqa develops autonomous drone solutions, including avionics components, radio systems, drones, pilot goggles and controls. With the raised capital, the start-up intends to scale its development, production capacities and sales worldwide to meet the increasing demand for cost-effective and advanced autonomous drone technologies. The company is benefiting from a favourable market situation: demand for drone systems is increasing in the military sector due to the challenges posed by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, but demand in the commercial sector is also growing. At the same time, Orqa is benefiting from the instability of global supply chains and meeting the demand for reliable and complete end-to-end drone solutions made in Europe.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focusing on supporting innovation and trends in the enterprise, consumer and healthcare sectors with an emphasis on category-defining businesses that change the way we interact today and enable a visionary tomorrow. The firm has supported hundreds of founders and helped build more than 500 extraordinary companies worldwide.

Legal advisors Lightspeed Venture Partners

Taylor Wessing Germany: Lead Dr. Norman Röchert (Lead, Partner, Berlin), Joana Pamukova (Senior Associate, Frankfurt), Jasmin Bechtold (Associate, Berlin, alle Corporate / Venture Capital)

Taylor Wessing Ireland: Dannie Hanna (Of Counsel), Ameer Gazder (Associate)