Sightec raises A$8.5 million in a pre-IPO round managed by Powerhouse Ventures for GPS-free drone navigation

TLDR

• GPS-free drone navigation firm Sightec raised A$8.5 million (US$6.1 million) in a pre-IPO round on 29 October 2026.¹²
• Powerhouse Ventures was lead manager, co-invested about A$700,000, and is advising on a possible ASX listing.¹
• Dealroom reports US$5.5M rather than US$6.1M; Sightec's claim of 4,000 drone deployments is the company's own.³¹

Sightec, which develops camera-based software that keeps drones flying and positioned without GPS, completed an A$8.5 million (US$6.1 million) initial close of a pre-IPO raising, announced on 29 October 2026 by Australian-listed Powerhouse Ventures (ASX:PVL), according to Kalkine Media's report of the filing.¹ Further capital is committed under a deferred close, so the total is not yet final.¹ Sightec issued convertible preferred stock, according to S&P Capital IQ via MarketScreener, which names the issuer as Sightec (Israel) Ltd, while Kalkine calls it Sightec Inc.²¹ Dealroom News headlines the round at $6M and gives US$5.5M in its text, against the US$6.1 million in the filing; this article uses the filing's figure.³¹

On who invested, Powerhouse acted as lead manager and corporate adviser and co-invested about A$700,000, of which A$440,000 came from its own balance sheet, on the same terms as the investors it introduced.¹ MarketScreener and Dealroom list Powerhouse and New River Asset Management as new investors, but the filing says New River is a wholly owned Powerhouse subsidiary that holds allocations below US$250,000 as bare trustee for investors, so they are one group.²³¹ The rest of the money was raised from Powerhouse's own network of sophisticated and professional investors, none of whom are named.¹ The sources do not say whether Sightec's earlier backers took part. Its 2019 seed round of $2 million was led by Sherpa InnoVentures and Playfair Capital.⁴ Powerhouse is an advisory and funds-management business, and the sources do not describe any earlier defence or drone investments by it; Executive Chairman James Kruger says only that the Sightec technology was validated through the group's "defence and deep technology expert ecosystem" before it was offered to investors.¹

Sightec's flagship NavSight is, per the filing, "combat-proven", rated at Technology Readiness Level 9 and deployed on more than 4,000 drones across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.¹ Those are company claims and no customer is named in the 2026 sources. Dealroom adds that the announcement gives no valuation, no use of proceeds and no evidence of customer revenue.³ Related products are TerraSight, which lands drones autonomously without GPS, and GridSight, which turns live drone video into geographic coordinates.¹ The technology came from computer-vision research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and has been developed commercially since 2017.¹ Sightec says it works in "GPS-denied and contested environments" and cites thousands of operational sorties, though it gives no breakdown by customer.⁵ In 2019 the Tel Aviv-based company listed Israel Aerospace Industries as a major client and described uses including autonomous navigation and landing for drones, UAVs and air taxis.⁴

Powerhouse's advisory arm is also Sightec's Australian capital markets adviser for a potential ASX listing, and Kruger says the group will help Sightec build revenue while it stays private and weighs its options.¹ He calls the deal a start toward the advisory unit's growth targets for its 2027 financial year.¹

Why it matters: a broker-led pre-IPO raise puts a GPS-free drone navigation vendor on a possible ASX path, but the investors are largely the arranger's own network and the deployment and combat claims are Sightec's own, with no revenue disclosed.¹³