French neuromorphic vision pioneer PROPHESEE raises €20 million: MANTARA targets a multibillion-euro European market

When Prophesee was founded in 2014, its ambition was to develop a new generation of sensors inspired by the workings of the human eye. At the time, its target markets were automotive, robotics and consumer electronics. Twelve years later, the company has announced a €20 million funding round to accelerate its expansion into drone detection and defence technologies. This new direction says as much about Prophesee’s evolution as it does about that of the wider European deeptech ecosystem.

Over the past several years, the French startup has established itself as one of the world’s leading specialists in event-based vision. Unlike conventional cameras, which record images at a fixed frame rate, its sensors capture only the changes occurring within a scene. Each pixel reacts independently as soon as movement is detected, considerably reducing the amount of information that must be processed and enabling response times measured in microseconds. This biomimetic approach, inspired by the human visual system, was long presented as a technology capable of improving the performance of autonomous vehicles, industrial robots and advanced electronic devices.

The launch of Mantara, however, marks a significant change of direction. The new system developed by Prophesee is no longer primarily aimed at production lines or car manufacturers. It targets critical infrastructure operators, security organisations and armed forces facing the proliferation of drones. The company presents Mantara as the first integrated drone detection and tracking system designed natively around event-based vision, from the sensor itself to embedded AI processing.

This shift is not merely the result of a technological decision. It reflects a profound transformation in demand. For years, part of Europe’s deeptech industry looked to the automotive sector for its commercial inflection point. Carmakers promised the advent of increasingly autonomous vehicles capable of integrating new sensors and perception capabilities. The reality proved more complex. Validation cycles remain long, regulatory constraints are considerable and cost pressures are constant. For many technology startups, the market has developed more slowly than expected.

At the same time, recent conflicts have created a new category of demand. Drones have become ubiquitous across modern theatres of operation. The experience of Ukraine has demonstrated that a relatively inexpensive aircraft can pose a significant threat to far more sophisticated military equipment. Civilian infrastructure is also affected. Airports, ports, power plants, sensitive industrial sites and major public events must now account for the risks posed by increasingly accessible and capable flying objects.

This development is changing the very nature of the technologies being sought. The ability to detect rapidly a low-flying drone that frequently changes direction and produces only limited electromagnetic or thermal signatures has become a central challenge. In this context, the low latency offered by event-based vision provides a tangible advantage. Where a conventional camera must capture, transmit and then analyse an entire image, an event-based sensor directly transmits the information associated with an observed change in the scene. According to Prophesee, Mantara can therefore identify and characterise a threat before a conventional system has finished processing a single frame.

Beyond Mantara, however, Hearth may be the more structurally significant announcement. This new software platform is becoming the centrepiece of the company’s strategy. It succeeds OpenEB and the Metavision SDK, which had supported the development of the ecosystem until now. Hearth integrates artificial intelligence capabilities, field-update management, cybersecurity, compatibility across sensor generations and the fusion of data from multiple sources. The objective is no longer simply to supply a high-performance component, but to provide a complete environment in which manufacturers, integrators and developers can build their own event-based vision applications.

This transition reflects another important shift. For several years, Prophesee promoted its technology among the developer community through OpenEB. The announcement of the gradual end-of-life of this open-source layer signals a new level of maturity. Having first sought to convince the market of the value of event-based vision, the company is now attempting to structure an industrial ecosystem around a proprietary platform capable of ensuring the compatibility, maintenance and continued development of deployed applications.

Prophesee’s case forms part of a broader European trend. Over the past three years, a growing number of companies specialising in robotics, sensors, embedded artificial intelligence and tactical software have moved closer to defence markets. This movement extends well beyond strictly military considerations. It reflects the emergence of a European security and counter-drone market whose outlines are beginning to take shape. Companies such as Helsing in tactical artificial intelligence, Quantum Systems and Tekever in drones, and Exosens in advanced imaging are contributing to the gradual emergence of a European value chain dedicated to these new applications.

This ecosystem nevertheless remains fragile. European companies operate in an environment dominated by the United States while also facing China’s growing industrial power. Although debates over technological sovereignty frequently focus on semiconductors and cloud computing, advanced sensors and perception systems are also strategic segments. China already holds a dominant position in several categories of civilian drones and is progressing rapidly in embedded electronics, machine vision and related components. For European manufacturers, the challenge is therefore not only to maintain their technological lead, but also to build industrial capabilities capable of competing globally.

Prophesee’s newly announced €20 million funding round should be viewed in this context. The transaction comes six months after Jean Ferré took over as CEO and supports a strategy of moving higher up the value chain. The company no longer presents itself simply as a sensor supplier, but as a player capable of delivering complete systems combining hardware, software and embedded intelligence. The funding will support the commercial rollout of Mantara, the development of Hearth and the growing integration of artificial intelligence capabilities directly into its sensors.