21strategies

Name

21strategies

Legal name

21strategies GmbH

Website

https://21strategies.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Defense AI Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (51321), Computer Systems Design Services (541512), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Application Enablement Platforms (Copilot/Agent Frameworks, SDKs) (HDAEANAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Model Serving, Inference & Deployment Platforms (APIs, Edge/On-Prem) (HDAEANAC), AI/ML Engineering & Model Development Services (BPAEAHAF)

Keywords

• Defense artificial intelligence
• Tactical decision systems
• Autonomous swarm software
• Military simulation platform
• Battlefield digital twin

Headquarters

HQ city

Munich

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Defense Contracts and R&D Projects: Government and defense industry contracts for AI-based tactical decision support systems. Projects include GhostPlay consortium work funded by dtec.bw (German Armed Forces digitalization center) with EU NextGenerationEU funding, NATO-related exercises, and direct engagements with defense contractors.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

21strategies develops and sells "Third Wave AI" software — context-aware, consequence-aware AI for tactical decision-making under uncertainty — packaged as a family of defense and risk-management products. The core stack is the Defense Metaverse simulation environment, the GhostPlay / GhostPlay@SEA digital-twin red-team products, the tactics21 AI platform, and the JATOC deployment core that fields AI onto real platforms. Civilian variants hedge21 (FX and commodity hedging) and Flow21 (economic preparedness) extend the same AI capability to enterprise risk management.

Product overview

21strategies offers a platform-plus-products architecture centered on Third Wave AI for decision-making under uncertainty. The core Defense Metaverse serves as the foundational simulation environment, with GhostPlay and GhostPlay@SEA as specialized applications for land/air and maritime domains respectively. The proprietary tactics21 technology underpins all offerings. Civilian products include hedge21 for financial risk management and Flow21 for economic resilience. Military solutions feature JATOC as a deployment-ready tactical operations core and Sim2Live Bridge for transferring AI policies to physical platforms. The company positions itself as a 'Veredler' (enricher) that can apply its AI tactics to diverse robotic and autonomous platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GhostPlay: AI-based digital twin of the battlefield and tactical decision-making system for military operations
• GhostPlay@SEA
• Defense Metaverse
• hedge21
• tactics21
• JATOC
• Sim2Live Bridge

Products and services

• Defense Metaverse AI factory and simulation environment that models realistic adversarial and friendly forces, enabling training, testing, and evaluation of tactical AI for defence customers. Used by defence ministries, armed forces, and defence primes that need a synthetic environment to develop and validate autonomous-tactics software.
• GhostPlay AI-driven red-team / blue-team digital twin for land and air domains that simulates realistic adversaries, enabling autonomous tactical decision-making and human-out-of-the-loop training. Sold to defence agencies and primes that need to test and field AI tactics on land and air platforms.
• GhostPlay@SEA Maritime-domain extension of GhostPlay, providing AI-driven red-team / blue-team simulation and autonomous-tactics capability for naval operations. Uses the Sim2Live Bridge architecture to transfer simulation-trained tactics onto real maritime platforms.
• JATOC Deployment core (Just Another Tactical Operations Core) that embeds 21strategies' Third Wave AI onto physical tactical platforms and weapons systems, enabling fielded autonomous decision-making at the edge. Targeted at defence primes and armed forces that need to run tactical AI directly on deployed hardware.
• hedge21 Civilian-sector AI product for hedging foreign-exchange exposure and commodity price risk using Third Wave AI decision-making under uncertainty. Targeted at corporate treasury and risk-management teams that need an AI-driven alternative to traditional hedging rules.
• Flow21 Economic-preparedness industry solution that uses AI-driven decision-making under uncertainty to help companies sustain supply shocks and outcompete rivals. Aimed at enterprises whose operations and supply chains are exposed to large-scale disruption.

Quantifiable outcome

• AI-powered GhostPlay software enhanced Gepard tank defense capabilities to defend against up to 60 unmanned flying objects, six times the usual limit of a single tank
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability6 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• APS EnergiacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 November 2025German AI company 21strategies and Polish firm APS Energia signed a Letter of Intent to jointly develop next-generation tactical drone systems. APS Energia manufactures airborne platforms while 21strategies provides AI-based battlefield logic. The partnership has political backing and EU funding support for building modern unmanned platforms.
• Terräng MP-Sec FrancecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 September 2025Cooperation with French manufacturer Terräng MP-Sec France to demonstrate how AI-controlled tactics can give meaningful collaborative behavior to a pack of RoboDogs. The robots were equipped with tactical AI policy from 21strategies trained in the Defense Metaverse.
• Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces HamburgcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2025Project led by Helmut Schmidt University as part of dtec.bw (Center for Digitalization and Technology Research of the German Armed Forces). 21strategies serves as main technical contractor for GhostPlay@SEA project.
• ATLAS ElektronikmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of GhostPlay@SEA consortium. ATLAS Elektronik supports the project with maritime expertise and communication capabilities. First time part of the GhostPlay ecosystem.
• Rheinmetall Defence ElectronicsmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerConsortium partner in GhostPlay@SEA project. Provides system integration expertise and technology for naval applications. Visualization of RoboDog missions on Rheinmetall monitoring systems at REPMUS 2025.
• Borchert Consulting & ResearchmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerConsortium partner providing scientific advice for GhostPlay and GhostPlay@SEA projects. Contributed to research on Defense Metaverse applications for military decision-making.
• Hensoldt SensorsmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSensor technology partner in GhostPlay consortium. Collaborated on GhostPlay project (2021-2024) developing AI-based digital twin of battlefield for air defense scenarios.
• dtec.bw (Center for Digitalization and Technology Research of the German Armed Forces)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFunding and commissioning organization for GhostPlay projects. Part of German Armed Forces digitalization initiative. Project funded by NextGenerationEU.
• University of the Federal Armed Forces HamburgcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic partner in GhostPlay consortium. Contributed to research on AI-based digital twin of battlefield and loitering munitions deployment tactics.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Helsing: European defense AI company building AI software for real-time decision-making on the battlefield across air, land, and sea domains. Most direct competitor to 21strategies with overlapping sovereign European positioning, Bundeswehr relationships, and autonomous systems focus.
• Anduril Industries: US-based defense technology company building autonomous systems and AI-powered tactical platforms (Lattice OS, Ghost/Roadrunner). Comparable as a developer of AI-driven autonomous defense software targeting government customers, though operating primarily in the US/allied market rather than EU sovereign ecosystem.
• Shield AI: US defense AI company building autonomous drone swarms (Hivemind) and tactical AI for military operations. Directly comparable autonomous swarm and tactical AI capabilities, with Hivemind serving as the closest analog to 21strategies' tactics21 swarm behavior platform.
• Rebellion Defense: US defense AI company building AI software for mission planning, intelligence, and autonomous systems. Comparable product focus on AI-driven tactical decision-making for defense customers, though with broader intelligence and ISR focus beyond autonomous swarm tactics.

Broad incumbents

• Palantir Technologies: Large defense and government AI/analytics platform (Gotham, Foundry) serving NATO, Bundeswehr, and US DoD with decision-support and operational AI. Broad incumbent offering overlapping with 21strategies' tactical decision-making focus but as part of a much wider enterprise AI portfolio.
• BAE Systems (Autonomous Systems): Global defense prime with significant AI/autonomy investments across air, land, sea, and cyber domains. Incumbent competitor that can build competing tactical AI capabilities in-house and leverage existing prime contractor relationships with NATO and European governments.
• Thales (AI / Defence Mission Systems): European defense and aerospace prime with AI-enabled command, control, and autonomous systems offerings for NATO and EU customers. Incumbent competitor with similar sovereign European positioning and overlapping tactical AI and autonomous systems portfolio.

Emerging players

• Saronic Technologies: US autonomous maritime systems company building uncrewed surface vessels for naval and security operations. Comparable in maritime autonomous defense applications overlapping with GhostPlay@SEA and JATOC for naval warfare use cases.
• HavocAI: US startup building scalable autonomous uncrewed surface vessels for defense and commercial maritime use cases. Comparable emerging player in autonomous maritime defense with overlapping naval mission focus to GhostPlay@SEA.
• Applied Intuition: Autonomy software platform serving defense and automotive customers with simulation and autonomy stacks. Comparable in the autonomy simulation and deployment infrastructure layer (analogous to Defense Metaverse + Sim2Live Bridge) though applied across commercial automotive and defense.

Market position

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks2 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/21strategies

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 21strategies