DAEDALEAN AG

Their core work

DAEDALEAN AG develops AI-based autonomous flight control software for aviation, with a specific focus on certifiable machine learning systems for both conventional aircraft and next-generation electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. Their core product is an autopilot system built on neural networks and computer vision, designed to meet aviation safety standards — a technically demanding problem that most AI companies avoid. Unlike general-purpose AI firms, they are embedded in the aviation domain, building systems that regulators and aircraft manufacturers can actually certify and deploy. Their work bridges the gap between academic AI research and flight-critical aerospace engineering.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

DAEDALEAN's H2020 trajectory follows a textbook SME Instrument path: a small feasibility study (Corvid, 2017, €50K) to validate the AI flight control concept for electric passenger aircraft, followed by a much larger innovation project (Raven, 2019, €2.23M) to build and scale the actual product. The scope broadened from a narrow focus on future electric passenger aircraft to a dual target — conventional aircraft flying today and eVTOLs — suggesting the company identified a larger addressable market during the Corvid phase. The 45x funding increase from phase one to phase two signals that they successfully demonstrated technical feasibility and commercial viability to EU evaluators.

DAEDALEAN is moving from concept validation toward a deployable autonomous flight control product targeting both the retrofit market (existing aircraft) and the fast-growing eVTOL sector, positioning itself ahead of incoming EASA regulations on autonomous air mobility.

How they like to work

DAEDALEAN has exclusively used the SME Instrument funding scheme, which is designed for solo company projects — no consortium partners appear in their H2020 record. This indicates they prefer to develop their core IP independently rather than through collaborative research consortia. For external collaborators, this likely means they would enter partnerships as a technology provider or specialist contributor rather than as a co-developer sharing IP.

DAEDALEAN has no recorded consortium partners across their two H2020 projects, consistent with the solo-company structure of the SME Instrument. Their collaboration network within the EU funding system is minimal, though their commercial partnerships with airframers and avionics suppliers are not captured in this data.

What sets them apart

DAEDALEAN occupies a rare niche: they are building AI autonomy software specifically engineered for aviation certification, not adapted from automotive or drone sectors. Very few SMEs globally are attempting to develop neural-network-based flight control that can pass EASA or FAA safety validation — most incumbents are large aerospace primes. For a consortium targeting urban air mobility, autonomous aviation R&D, or eVTOL certification challenges, DAEDALEAN brings a combination of AI depth and aviation regulatory awareness that is genuinely hard to find at SME scale.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Corvid
  As the phase-one feasibility project that unlocked the Raven grant, Corvid demonstrates DAEDALEAN's ability to navigate the competitive SME Instrument process and validate a technically ambitious concept in under 12 months.
• Raven
  With EUR 2.23M in EC funding under SME-2b, Raven is DAEDALEAN's flagship project and one of the larger single-company grants in autonomous aviation AI, covering both retrofit aircraft and next-generation eVTOL platforms.