Defense Tech in Ukraine: companies that can become unicorns

So far, the list of global unicorns of Ukrainian origin – Grammarly, GitLab, People.ai, Unstoppable Domains, airSlate, and Creatio – does not include any startups in the field of defense or dual-use technologies.

Field-testing is a strong competitive advantage of Ukrainian developers, but also a challenge for investors.

According to Khudoba, “any company that effectively destroys something expensive for less money can become a unicorn.” He names the following startups as potential unicorns:

Defense Tech

• The Fourth Law – autonomy modules for robotic systems

• Odd Systems – FPV drones and components

• Roboneers – ground robotic systems

• Sine Engineering – communication for UAVs in extreme conditions

• FRDM – robotic system development

• Magura – FPV drones, UAVs, EW and EW solutions

• SkyFall – drone technology

• Himera– military radios

• Ukrspecsystems – UAVs and military electronics

• Deviro – UAVs and analytical software

AI / OSINT

• Griselda – intelligence AI

• Osavul – countering disinformation

• Swarmer– drone swarm management

• Molfar – OSINT and private intelligence

Young startups with potential

• Black Forest System – Autonomy, Robotics, UAVs

• Twist Robotics – Military-tech solutions

• Karadag – radio signal analysis and direction finding

• Norda Dynamics – autonomous drone control systems

The Brave1 platform also names maritime drones, autonomy, artificial intelligence, and Deep Strike as the most promising areas of development.