Vegvisir: The Estonian Defense Startup Building a Universal Operating System for NATO's Multi-Domain Battlefield

The Interoperability Crisis Vegvisir Solves

NATO forces face fragmented C2 architectures that limit interoperability between platforms and allied nations, especially as unmanned systems proliferate . Vegvisir's software solves this by providing a single, interoperable interface that coordinates manned and unmanned assets across land, air, maritime, and subsea domains, combining AI-powered detection and decision support .

Key capabilities include:

• Platform-agnostic integration — the system works across different vehicle types, sensors, and communication networks without requiring a single vendor's hardware .
• A new Communications Module that automatically manages and switches between 5G, 4G, Starlink, MANET MESH radios, and fiber-optic connections if a preferred network drops, using dual modems with failover and enabling RF-silent (low-observable) operations .
• Ultra-low-latency 360° "see-through-armour" awareness for vehicle crews, delivered via mixed-reality headsets, which addresses the core problem of armored crews operating blind .
• Unified command picture — live feeds, maps, and mission data from multiple domain assets in a single interface, helping commanders understand where assets are and what they see .

The system already meets NATO STANAG standards and has been integrated with platforms including unmanned ground vehicles .

Multi-Domain Ambition

Vegvisir's ambition is to become the defining software-native C2 platform for multi-domain operations across NATO allies. The company explicitly aims to expand its Virtual Command Station beyond land operations to cover air, maritime, and underwater assets, giving commanders a unified picture across all domains .

CEO Pärnamäe stated that as armed forces adopt growing numbers of drones, UGVs, and autonomous maritime systems, one of the biggest challenges is making manned and unmanned assets work together effectively — and Vegvisir's enhanced system is designed to "reduce the manpower required to operate autonomous systems" and provide commanders a clearer understanding of asset positions and mission contributions .

The company is currently being tested or deployed across nine countries including Australia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US, and is pursuing validation in Ukraine .

What the CEO and Investor Say

Pärnamäe emphasized that the Communications Module "was born directly from customer demand" and that Vegvisir had heard the same challenge repeatedly: the situational awareness system was excellent, but customers also needed a reliable way to connect platforms in contested environments .

Kasparas Jurgelionis, Managing Partner at Iron Wolf Capital, provided a detailed statement on the investment thesis:

"We invest where technology meets an irreversible shift in how the world operates. The transition to multi-domain unmanned operations is exactly that kind of shift, and it demands a software-native, platform-agnostic solution that no existing player has adequately built. Vegvisir has the architecture, the team, and the ambition to own that space. We believe that over the next decade, Vegvisir can become one of the defining names in European defence technology, and this investment is our commitment to helping them get there."

This statement underscores that Iron Wolf Capital sees the fragmented C2 landscape as a structural market failure, Vegvisir's platform-agnostic software architecture as the key differentiator, and the company as having the potential to become a leading European defense technology name within a decade .

Fact Check: Kuldar Väärsi's Personal Investment

Contrary to some reports, the search results and crawled pages do not contain any mention of Milrem Robotics CEO Kuldar Väärsi making a personal investment in Vegvisir. Vegvisir and Milrem Robotics have a publicly known MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) signed in September 2024 to collaborate on integrating Vegvisir's XR situational awareness systems into Milrem's unmanned ground vehicles . However, no evidence of a personal equity investment by Kuldar Väärsi in Vegvisir appears in the available sources.