According to Artem Moroz, Head of Investor Relations at Brave1, Ukraine attracted 50% of all early-stage investment in Europe’s defense tech sector last year.
He said this on the Forward podcast with Valeriia Ionan.
“There has not yet been a major funding round that would make the front pages of The Wall Street Journal, but we are building toward it. And the investors entering the market now are far from the first and certainly not the last,” Artem Moroz added.
He said that in Ukraine’s defense tech sector, every dollar works ten times more efficiently than in other countries.
“The main advantage of Ukrainian defense tech is not patriotism or cheap labor, but capital efficiency. One dollar invested here delivers significantly more than in most other markets because feedback between engineers and the battlefield takes days, not years. A company receives data on how its system performs under real electronic warfare conditions, makes changes, and sees the results in the next cycle. This is a type of knowledge that simply cannot be acquired in peacetime,” the Brave1 representative said.
Artem Moroz identified five areas of defense tech that, in his view, are developing most rapidly and that he would recommend for investment:
- subcomponents for unmanned systems;
- autonomy;
- air defense;
- unmanned ground systems;
- AI and data analytics.
He also believes investors should not focus on whether a startup’s military technology has potential civilian applications, as the defense sector is developing rapidly and is self-sustaining.
“NATO and the democratic world are currently undergoing a rearmament cycle — the largest transformation of one of the most conservative industries in history. Missing this opportunity for the sake of a civilian market that is not waiting for you would be a strategic mistake,” the expert stressed.
