In 2023, the venture fund D3, with tech billionaire Eric Schmidt, was virtually the only investor in the Ukrainian defense industry. But this year, Ukrainian military tech has received a lot of attention from investors. Owners and top managers of IT companies are the main drivers of investment in Ukrainian defense technology.
“There are more than 30 Ukrainian investors who live in Ukraine, have built a business here, and want to invest in defense,” says Kateryna Bezsudna, co-founder of the Buntar Aerospace startup.
The specificity of the Ukrainian defense venture is to offer “not only and not so much money” as expertise in building a business.
“Not everyone who can make technology can build a business,” Fedir Martynov, head of the Innovation Hub from the TAF Drones company, noted.
TAF Drones is ready to either buy products from talented drone, communications, and electronic warfare developers or invest in scaling their production.
The founder of the Estonian unicorn Pipedrive, Ragnar Sass, launched the Darkstar project, a coalition of 20 tech entrepreneurs from Ukraine and Europe who want to finance Ukrainian military technology.