Estonia grants Donut Lab €187K to move its motors into drones
What's the deal? Donut Lab Development OÜ, an Estonia-registered company with Finnish roots, has received a €187,000 grant from Estonia's Ministry of Economic Affairs and CommunicationsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to support its research and development. The funds are earmarked for general economic, trading, and labour force costs.
What's the endgame? The company is pushing its solid-state battery and motor technology into drone development. Marko Lehtimäki, a board member, said the funded projects relate to "next-generation donut motors."
Why now? Estonia is actively hunting for defence-industry success stories and funding them generously. The country wants to position itself internationally as a leader in the drone sector, making battery and motor makers a natural fit.
The bigger picture: The grant is one of two research awards Donut Lab has secured from Estonia in a short span, together worth close to €1.5 million. The other, €1.28 million from the EISDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → foundation — Estonia's equivalent of Finland's Business FinlandDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — funds a project on high-performance integrated drone drive units, valued at €1.83 million overall.
The numbers: The support looks large against Donut Lab's own spending. Its R&D costs ran under €50,000 across an 18-month financial period, and Donut Lab Development posted revenue of €52,000 and a €552,000 loss over the same stretch.
What could go wrong? Donut Lab's solid-state battery and its real-world performance have drawn sharp criticism, as have the ownership structures behind the company. Neither Donut Lab nor Donut Lab Development has been profitable to date, and the Estonian grants have yet to show up in revenue.
The signal: Estonia's willingness to back an unproven, loss-making startup underscores how far governments will go to build a domestic defence-tech and drone base. For Donut Lab, state money now dwarfs its own investment — a bet that its motor technology can find a market beyond the motorcycles already sold under the linked Verge Motorcycles brand.
Read more: Talouselämä
Image credit: desoda
