London-based Hadean began life several years ago as an AI gaming startup working on VR and video simulations, but it found new wind in its sails when it pivoted to defence and resilience technology. Business has boomed, so much so that we understand it may have received an interesting acquisition offer last year (it turned it down). Now, Hadean has raised around $15 million in funding as it continues to see activity across government in the UK and the US.
Craig Beddis, Hadean’s co-founder and CEO, described the funding in an interview as a bridge round that helps it also with “some secondary clean up” ahead of a more substantial Series B later this year. The funding has an option of being extended to $20 million.
Beddis declined to talk much about the Series B. We understand it is likely to be around $100 million, with a big boost to Hadean’s valuation to boot. (That valuation is already between $100 million and $200 million, sources say.)
Beddis also declined to say much about who is coming off its cap table in this round. Booz Allen Ventures, British Business Bank, Twin Track Ventures, and Entrepreneurs First (EF) are all investing in Hadean in this latest investment, some taking secondary positions in the startup.
If you look at Hadean’s profile on PitchBook, the list of options of who might cash out is long. The startup has no less than 36 investors listed there, stretching back to its gaming days and extending into its current incarnation in defence tech. It includes gaming giant Epic and China’s Tencent, which both invested when it was a gaming startup, as well as In-Q-Tel.
Hadean’s earliest work saw it developing video technology for massive multiplayer gaming, including helping Epic with EVE Online. It turns out that some of that technology has direct applicability in the world of defence.
Hadean is not the only one to have made that connection: Niantic built the blockbuster Pokemon GO before selling off its games division to focus on geospatial applications, targeting defense as a primary customer in a new enterprise push.
In Hadean’s case, the startup has developed a range of tools around how it uses AI to create video simulations, which it has tailored into a variety of defence tech and “resilience tech” products.
The core of Hadean’s offering is around its wargaming, command and control, and battlefield training tools. These initially were targeted at non-combat simulations. More recently, with the launch of a new tool called domainAI, Hadean is also applying that tech to real-time live combat environments.
Hadean has also has set up a network called Sceptre that it describes as a “UK SME sovereign stack.” The idea is to have ready-made integrations and relationships between a number of specialists in different areas (for example ACUA Ocean, which builds unmanned surface vessels) aimed at large customers to make it easier to work with a range of smaller businesses without as many integration headaches.
Sceptre was recently “down-selected” as part of a major procurement project for the UK military, not quite the same as a revenue-based deal, but an important step towards that.
It also partners with other companies to deliver services, for example a collaboration it announced with Palantir in September 2025 to develop simulation and AI products to the UK armed forces. Previously, Hadean also worked with companies like Faculty, which is now part of Accenture, to build services for government users.
Mimi Keshani, Hadean’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, said another partnership effort at Hadean is a project in Ukraine, where it is working with a health tracking hardware company — she declined to say which — to help improve citizen soldiers’ situational awareness.
Hadean is based in London and has built a lot of structure, like Sceptre, to sell into the UK market. Some of that is paying off in deals. For example, Keshani noted an agreement currently with the Cabinet Office to build a simulation tool to help model better responses to pandemics. (Covid-19 clearly proved that there was some work to do on that front.)
However, it sounds like a large part of the startup’s actual business at the moment, in terms of revenues, is coming from the US, which is pumping a lot of money into its defence posture right now, and so the money Hadean has raised will, in large part, be to help increase its velocity there.
Indeed, that is what brought Booz Allen Hamilton to the table.
“This investment marks the next phase of a rich partnership between Booz Allen and Hadean focused on delivering measurable impact for critical US defence missions,” said Steve Escaravage, president of BAH’s Defense Technology Group. “As the US Department of War prioritises speed and interoperability, we are accelerating the integration of Hadean’s capabilities into operational environments, to enable faster decision making and strengthen joint readiness.”
“Hadean has demonstrated that it can deliver mission-critical capability in live operational environments. That foundation matters now the company is expanding into the United States and deepening engagement with allied partners,” added Nicola Sinclair, general partner at Twin Track Ventures. “We are pleased to support the team through this next phase of growth.”
We asked and Keshani and Beddit said that none of Hadean’s current work is connected to the current campaigns in Iran and the Middle East.
