Company
The Perception Layer for Physical AI.
Sapient Perception is a Copenhagen deep-tech company building the sensing infrastructure that lets unmanned systems see everything, understand it onboard, and deliver only what matters — for defense, security, and resilience.
See everything · Miss nothing · Protect what matters
Why we exist
Mission-Critical Decisions Deserve a Complete Picture — Not a Compromise.
Today’s unmanned systems force operators to trade awareness for detail: zoom in and lose the scene, zoom out and lose the target. Bandwidth-bound pipelines and operator overload turn what the sensor saw into what the mission missed. Sapient was founded to remove that compromise — permanently, and at the edge.
Capture Everything
The full scene, every frame, at detection resolution — wide-area 10K imaging engineered with mission optics, so nothing outside a zoom window is ever a blind spot.
Understand Onboard
Edge compute and an AI-agnostic software layer run the customer’s own models on the aircraft — intelligence forms at the sensor, not after a fragile downlink.
Deliver what matters
Geolocated findings in open formats, straight into existing command systems, in real time — a fraction of the bandwidth and none of the noise.
- Copenhagen, DenmarkEuropean deep-tech
- ITAR-free · NDAATrusted allied supply chain
- One integrated stackSensor · optics · compute · AI
- MOSA architectureOpen, modular, integrable
Founder & leadership team
Built by the Experts Who Set and Shipped the Standard for Aerial Imaging Systems.
The three founders spent four years working together at Phase One, the Danish high-end imaging company — designing and shipping multi-modal cameras for drones, aircraft, and satellites. They know this problem from the inside: they built the systems that hit today’s ceiling, and founded Sapient to move it.
Anthony Garetto
Co-founder · Chief Executive Officer
Twenty years building and leading teams and launching products in sensing and AI, from precision instrumentation to aerial imaging — four of those years side by side with his co-founders.
- 20+ years in sensing & AI product leadership
- Led product lines from concept to global market
- Four years in aerial imaging at Phase One
Lau Nørgaard
Co-founder · Chief Technology Officer
Twenty years building imaging and machine-vision systems, ten of them on exactly the wide-area detection problem Sapient now solves — the depth behind hardware others consider impossible.
- 20+ years in imaging & machine vision
- 10 years on wide-area aerial perception
- Led R&D on drone, aircraft & satellite cameras
Michael Messerschmidt
Co-founder · Chief Business Officer
Fifteen years of commercial leadership in the drone and defense industry — the market knowledge, procurement fluency, and OEM network that give Sapient a running start.
- 15+ years commercial, drone & defense
- Deep OEM and integrator network across Europe
- Four years in aerial imaging at Phase One
The moment
Why This Company, Now.
Doctrine has moved to the edge
Jamming and GNSS denial have broken the assumption of a reliable ground link. Detection now has to happen at the sensor, in real time — exactly where Sapient’s stack lives.
Europe is rearming — sovereignly
European defense budgets are committed for a decade, and procurement increasingly requires European-made, ITAR-free systems. Sapient is built in the EU on a trusted allied supply chain.
One stack, expanding missions
The architecture is sensor-, model-, and platform-agnostic. Aerial ISR is the entry point; the same stack extends to ground, maritime, counter-UAS, and, in time, space.
Validation
Flying With Partners Who Set the Bar.
Sapient hardware is being evaluated and integrated by UAV manufacturers and operators across Europe — from tactical platforms to the stratosphere.
Partners & Operators
and more
Investors
Grants & Ecosystems
and more
“At stratospheric altitudes, every pixel matters and every byte of bandwidth is precious. ECHO solves the fundamental challenge of high-altitude ISR — capturing enough detail across a massive area without overwhelming data links to the ground.”
Simon Vilms Pedersen · CTO · Spaceline
Talk to Us
Integrators and OEMs: bring your platform. Investors: request a briefing. Engineers: we are building the perception chain from Copenhagen — follow us on LinkedIn for openings.