Ondas, the US-listed defence technology company, is acquiring three Israeli defence technology businesses, Insignito, Ottopia Defense and Caribou Labs, for a total of $56 million, Calcalist reported on September 23, 2026.
The initial $56 million will be paid in cash or Ondas stock. Ondas could pay up to $32 million more if the businesses meet performance targets through 2028. Based on Ondas's own forecasts, the up-front price is less than three times the three companies' expected combined revenue in 2027, which implies projected revenue of nearly $19 million that year.
The deals bring 37 employees into Ondas, which has allocated restricted stock units covering 2,979,063 shares, and options on another 80,000 shares at $7.72 each, to the new staff. Ondas did not break down how much of the price goes to each company.
What Insignito built
Insignito was founded in 2022 by entrepreneurs with Israeli Air Force backgrounds and works on passive acoustic intelligence for counter-drone systems. Its main product, DUMBO, has been deployed in conflict zones. It detects, classifies, tracks and locates unmanned aircraft by listening to the environment rather than sending out radio or other electromagnetic signals.
The system uses real-time signal processing, acoustic models, artificial intelligence and proprietary algorithms to recognise the sound signatures of aircraft. It is meant to work alongside radar, radio-frequency and electro-optical sensors, giving operators another way to spot small first-person-view drones, low-flying threats and drones that do not emit radio signals, including those controlled by fibre-optic cable.
Insignito also has related products: WaveGuide, mission-planning software that models how detectable an aircraft will be by sound along a planned route; Silent Propellers, which reduces the noise drones make; and Banshee, an acoustic drone-interception system still in development.
Taken together, those products give Ondas tools for several steps of drone defence, from detection and tracking through mission planning and noise reduction to, eventually, interception. Calcalist noted that the threat Insignito addresses has grown as drones become common on battlefields and are increasingly designed to evade conventional detection.
The other two businesses
Ottopia Defense makes software and communications infrastructure for sending video, telemetry, mission data and commands between unmanned vehicles, remote operators and command centres when bandwidth is limited or communications are disrupted. It combines AI-enabled autonomy with very low-latency remote driving, so that a small number of operators can supervise several vehicles and take over when needed. Ondas plans to build the technology into its unmanned ground vehicles, including its Iron Wave platform.
Caribou Labs works on radio-frequency engineering, sensing, communications, positioning and timing for electronic-warfare conditions. Its technology aims to provide location and timing without GPS and to keep communications running when satellite navigation is jammed. Ondas says the technology is already deployed in active conflict environments.
Why Ondas is buying
Ondas describes its strategy as a system of systems, linking platforms, sensors, communications, software and command-and-control tools into one autonomous defence architecture. The three acquisitions fill gaps in detection, remote control and navigation.
The company has assembled more than 15 businesses in two years. In August it agreed to buy Aran Defense for $33 million, and earlier in September it agreed to buy Israel's Gate Technologies and its Polish manufacturing partner Bron Technologies for about $205 million. Its largest deal so far was the purchase of US company DZYNE Technologies for about $876 million.
Ondas's revenue rose to $83.8 million in the second quarter of 2026 from $6.3 million a year earlier, and it raised its 2026 revenue forecast to between $525 million and $550 million. It raised about $1 billion from an undisclosed investor at the end of 2025.
Building in Israel
Ondas has also been hiring senior figures from Israel's defence establishment. Former Mossad director David Barnea joined in August as global president and chairman of Ondas Defense, and former Rafael chief executive Yoav Har-Even has also joined. Ondas Israel is led by Oshri Lugassy, a former chief combat engineering officer of the Israel Defense Forces.
