Michael Messerschmidt is Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer at Sapient Perception, a Danish defense-tech startup building the world's first 10K sensor systems purpose-built for UAVs, enabling persistent large-area perception for mission-critical operations.

Michael brings over 15 years of experience in the UAV and advanced imaging industry, and holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, giving him a strong foundation in both technical markets and business strategy.

Recognizing that drone operators were forced to choose between coverage and detail, Michael co-founded Sapient Perception to eliminate that tradeoff by pairing ultra-high-resolution sensing with onboard edge AI processing.

As CBO, Michael leads business development and commercial partnerships, including a landmark integration with Dropla Tech to support the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence in detecting landmines and ambush drones at the front lines.

Sapient Perception's ECHO sensor covers up to 100 times larger areas than conventional drone cameras, and the company has secured 2 million euros in pre-seed funding from Balnord and FORWARD.one to scale its allied-supply-chain sensor stack across defense, security, and emergency response markets.