Kusti Salm is CEO of Frankenburg Technologies, a defense technology company developing affordable, mass-manufacturable missile systems for European air defense.

Kusti graduated from the University of Tartu with a degree in Political Sciences and studied Business Administration at the University of Maastricht. He served as Permanent Secretary of Estonia's Ministry of Defence from 2021 to 2024.

In 2024, Kusti received the European of the Year award for his contributions to advancing the defense agenda in the EU. He previously served as chief negotiator for the European Defence Fund in 2017.

Frankenburg raised 30M euros in Series A funding led by Plural and SmartCap, bringing total funding to 40M euros. The company operates across eight countries including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Poland, and Ukraine.

In just 13 months, the company advanced its Mark I short-range air defense missile from concept to advanced testing and industrialization. Frankenburg aims to produce missiles 10 times cheaper and 100 times faster than current industry standards.