The first quarter of 2026 for Ukrainian venture began with the emergence of two new unicorns — Preply and UForce — and the first Nasdaq listing of the Ukrainian Defense Tech company Swarmer.
AIN explains what happened on the venture market in January–March 2026: whether Defense Tech still dominates, what global demand for Ukrainian solutions looks like, and how the SaaS-apocalypse may have affected startups.
Venture takeaways from 2025
In 2025 Ukrainian tech companies raised $498m in investments — 8% more than in 2024 ($462m), according to the Dealbook of Ukraine by AVentures Capital.
Late stages dominated: Series D and Growth rounds made up around 50% of total investment volume. Series A nearly doubled compared to 2024 and accounted for 20.5% of the total. AI-focused startups received about $302m — almost three times more than companies without a significant AI component.
Also in 2025 Fintech-IT Group (the developer of the mono ecosystem) raised capital from UMAEF at a valuation above $1bn, becoming the country’s first fintech unicorn.
Regarding the defense tech sector, Brave1 reports that last year more than 50 Defense Tech startups raised $105m. For comparison, investment totals were $5m in 2023 and $59m in 2024.
This context laid the groundwork for the first quarter of 2026.
Global context
Software-mageddon, or the SaaS-apocalypse
Predictions by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella partly came true: in 2024 he named agentic AI as a possible cause of a SaaS-apocalypse or Software-mageddon. 2026 started from that.
“Multiples of public software companies (Monday, HubSpot, Atlassian, EPAM, Globant, Endava) have fallen to historical lows over the last 5–6 years. The reason is the market pricing in the risk that AI tools (Copilot, ChatGPT, etc.) will make traditional SaaS cheaper and slower to grow,” explains managing partner at AVentures Yevhen Sysoiev.
Large companies are reallocating budgets, increasing spending on AI infrastructure: for example, Meta estimates 2026 capital expenditures between $115–135bn as data center costs rise.
Is the SaaS industry disappearing? Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang rejects that: “The idea that artificial intelligence will somehow replace software companies is the most illogical thing in the world.”
According to Sysoiev, the SaaS-apocalypse directly affects Ukrainian software companies that are considering M&A or IPOs: the window for mergers, acquisitions or listings is not ideal right now.
Read also: Donald Trump’s sons invested in the startup Powerus, which is interested in Ukrainian technologies
Q1 2026. What happened on the Ukrainian venture market?
New unicorns
The eighth Ukrainian unicorn became the EdTech platform Preply, which reached a $1.2bn valuation.
Founded by Ukrainians Kyrylo Bihai, Dmytro Voloshyn and Serhii Lukyanov, the platform raised $150m. The round was led by investment firm WestCap; other investors include the EBRD and Horizon Capital. Terms were signed in December 2025 and Preply officially announced the Series D close in January 2026.
The company plans to invest the proceeds in AI and to expand its product and engineering teams.
Another unicorn with Ukrainian roots is UForce, which develops autonomous systems for air, sea and land — aimed at the needs of allied countries’ militaries. One of its best-known products is the Magura series of sea drones. This is the first Ukrainian defense unicorn; it precedes Fire Point, the deal for which was not approved by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, says Ihor Markevych, EIT Community Officer in Ukraine.
The company raised $50m at a valuation above $1bn, becoming the largest initial seed round for a defense startup in the UK, according to Bloomberg.
UForce co-founders are Oleksii Honcharuk, former Prime Minister of Ukraine, and entrepreneur Oleh Rohynskyi, who already has experience building a unicorn: his startup People.ai reached that status in 2021. The UForce board includes former UK defence secretary Ben Wallace. All this sets them apart from a typical defense startup, Markevych explains, because the company is structured with built-in access to government contracts in several NATO countries.
Largest deals and events
In March 2026 the AI software developer for drone swarms Swarmer listed on Nasdaq under the ticker SWMR, becoming the first Ukrainian company in the Defense Tech sphere to conduct an IPO on a US stock exchange.
Read also: “Kyivstar” on Nasdaq. How a Ukrainian company listed and why it chose a SPAC merger
The company placed 3m shares at $5 each, raising about $15m. By the close of the first trading day shares jumped more than 6x — to $31. In afterhours they reached $44, and by the end of the first week some reports recorded prices above $50.
According to the IPO registration statement (form S-1/A) previously analyzed by AIN, the company had initially expected to receive $12.6m in net proceeds from the offering — or $14.7m if the underwriter (the financial firm/bank that helps sell shares during a listing) exercised the full option to purchase additional shares.
Source: Nasdaq screenshot
Swarmer’s technology was first deployed in combat in April 2024 and since then has supported over 100,000 combat sorties. One Swarmer software solution allows a single operator to control a swarm of up to 25 drones simultaneously.
The IPO is a major market vote for the future of Defense Tech as a category, says Yevhen Sysoiev, AVentures. The company’s revenue is still small — slightly more than $300k — while Swarmer is trading at hundreds of millions of dollars, i.e. at a multiple of over 1,000x to revenue.
“Swarmer’s IPO broke the final barriers in American investors’ perception, showing that a Ukrainian defense product can not only enter the global market but also validate that entry with investor money via an IPO,” — Ihor Markevych, EIT, comments for AIN.
The second event — K1 Investment Management invested in Spin.ai, a startup of Ukrainian origin — a cybersecurity platform that protects enterprise cloud services. The investment will help the company scale the product and accelerate development of cloud protection technologies, Spin.ai said. The amount was not disclosed, but K1’s typical checks are $50–100m.
Notable deals in Q1 included:
- Farsight Vision closed a seed round at €7.2m.
- AI startup Superapp raised over $1.6m. Investors include Vesna Capital, Flyer One Ventures and others.
- Buntar Aerospace raised $10.4m in a new financing round with Axon Enterprise as lead investor. In total the company has raised about $15m in investment.
- Black Forest Systems raised $400k from Front Ventures and Hede Capital Partners.
- Occam Industries received €3m in pre-seed funding.
- The Ukrainian-Estonian startup Black Forest Systems raised $400k from Swedish funds Front Ventures and Hede Capital Partners.
Ukrainian Defense developments: how they are perceived globally and has demand changed?
Last year Ukrainian Defense Tech companies raised $129m, and over the past three years the sector grew 19-fold, AVentures Capital data shows.
“This is rapid, albeit forced growth: faced with a reduction in Western support, Ukraine was forced to quickly scale up its own capabilities,” says Bohdan Sas, co-founder of Buntar Aerospace.
According to Sas, compared to funding volumes for Western companies these figures are still small. Nonetheless the trend is positive: the gap is gradually closing; Ukraine’s defense industry is developing and becoming a more significant player for international investors.
Buntar Aerospace expects that over time this gap will disappear and investment volumes into Ukrainian companies will grow.
Military action in the Middle East and the role of Ukrainian businesses in modern warfare have increased interest from both Western and Eastern investors in Ukrainian defense tech companies, Denys Sychkov, Principal at Horizon Capital, tells AIN.
Against the backdrop of Iranian drone attacks in the Middle East, Ukrainian companies and the government are considering the possibility of exporting such solutions, including interception systems. President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Gulf countries to discuss defense cooperation, and Ukraine has already signed framework agreements with Saudi Arabia and Qatar and is negotiating with the UAE.
Ukrainian drone manufacturers report interest from the region and the US, but cannot conclude deals without government approval. At the same time there is a risk of missing this window due to slow development of an export policy.
Ukraine already has combat-proven technologies and the potential to scale production, but political decisions are needed to access foreign markets, as well as time to deploy systems and train personnel.
Read also: Ukraine agreed with Middle East countries on the export of sea drones — Zelensky
“Ukrainian housewives with 3D printers”
“These are Ukrainian housewives. They have 3D printers in their kitchens and they produce drone parts,” — that is how Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger answered journalist Simon Shuster’s question: “Who is the biggest drone manufacturer in Ukraine?”.
This illustrates an investment narrative, says Ihor Markevych:
However, he says, Papperger is partly right: first of all that Ukrainian drones are not Lockheed Martin in terms of technology and production costs. At the same time, a drone costing less than $1,000 can destroy a Rheinmetall tank that costs millions of euros.
Markevych also notes that Ukraine has a lot of low-tech production, which is a consequence of rising demand. Alongside that there are defense companies beginning to invest in their own R&D, developing innovative solutions. Scaling requires systemic approaches and greater involvement of state resources.
The playing field for Ukrainian and Western companies remains uneven.
“To attract a comparable volume of investment, Ukrainian companies need to demonstrate real results in use — often at the scale of dozens of units of equipment,” Bohdan Sas, Buntar Aerospace, tells AIN. “By contrast, Western startups can often sell an idea and be formally present in Ukraine.”
The problem, Sas says, is that investors do not always understand the difference between these approaches. Formal presence in Ukraine — periodic visits or an office — does not mean Western startups gain deep access to combat feedback and its rapid implementation. For Ukrainian teams, that feedback is already part of their DNA.
Asian market
Contrary to Papperger’s words, interest in Ukrainian Defense developments from Asian countries is growing.
In March 2026 the Japanese company Terra Drone invested in the Ukrainian developer of interceptor drones Amazing Drones via its subsidiary Terra Inspectioneering.
Conference devoted to Terra Drone’s entry into the Ukrainian market. Photo by Anton Tkachenko
Amazing Drones CEO Maksym Klymenko said the decision to cooperate was made quite quickly: it took a few months from meeting Terra Drone Corporation CEO Toru Tokushige to closing the deal.
The parties did not disclose the amount, but Klymenko notes that Terra Drone became an international and strategic partner. Overall he hopes the role of Asian countries, particularly Japan, in Ukraine will grow — in contrast to a more complicated situation with US partners at the moment.
“We hope that Terra Drone’s move will be the start, an invitation for other companies to join investments in Ukraine,” says Klymenko.
Terra Drone said it plans to expand activities in Ukraine and use the experience gained during the war to develop international projects. Among plans are opening an R&D centre in Ukraine with enhanced security and hiring people for manufacturing.
Earlier, in May 2025, Japanese tech company Rakuten Group and the Ukrainian platform Brave1 announced cooperation to support Ukrainian startups. Rakuten said it wanted to help Ukrainian developers enter the Japanese market and establish cooperation with the local defense industry and government.
In March 2026 a Business Development Lead vacancy for the Ukraine Defense Tech Initiative from Rakuten Group appeared on DOU (now inactive). The company was looking for someone in Ukraine to develop partnerships between Ukrainian defense startups and the Japanese market.
Forecasts
Experts view the first quarter positively, especially noting March 2026.
“I expect an increase in the share of deals that will be closed directly under Ukrainian law rather than through foreign structures,” says Ihor Markevych.
He says this is related to the potential introduction of Diia City Invest and successful investment cases this year. Markevych adds: “Ukraine is already reaching a level where investors hunt for Ukrainian Defense Tech rather than the other way around, so it can dictate terms.”
“Wars remain an influential factor on investor sentiment,” says Denys Sychkov, Horizon Capital.
He notes there is already a certain status quo regarding the investment climate around the Russia–Ukraine war. Investors have adapted their risk and appetite, developed approaches to minimizing risks and are operating in the current situation.
At the same time, the full-scale war still closes the door to investments in Ukrainian companies for a certain pool of Western investors who are not ready to take these risks.
“Once the war ends, opportunities for large transactions with foreign companies will open up,” Sychkov says.
Similarly, conditions of full-scale war do not favor creating and scaling new projects, so the pipeline of realistic projects will be less impressive than it would be in peacetime.
Regarding the war in the Middle East, stock markets have not reacted as dramatically as might be expected because they anticipate a relatively quick resolution, Sychkov says.
Overall for 2026 investors expect further market growth: estimates range from +10% to +25% depending on the fund, InVenture notes.
At the same time capital will be distributed unevenly: the main volumes of investment will continue to be concentrated in large deals and companies with proven scalability, while some startups will face tougher fundraising conditions.
AI companies, especially at growth and late stages, will continue to attract capital at high valuations. Meanwhile some other startups, notably classic SaaS without an AI component, will more often seek alternative liquidity scenarios, including M&A or private equity.
Investor focus will remain on AI infrastructure, Defense Tech, AI in Healthcare and robotics.
Read also: Digital and tech trends that will define 2026–2027. AIN’s large-scale study
Powered by WPeMatico
https://en.ain.ua/2026/05/07/venture-q1/