Investment amounts in Ukrainian startups could increase tenfold in 2024 compared to the previous year, reaching $50 million. These figures were reported by experts from the KSE Institute and Brave1 while researching the Ukrainian drone industry.
According to the study, Ukrainian defense startups attracted about $5 million in investments in 2023, and the amount may reach $50 million in 2024.
"The average size of investment rounds has increased from $500,000 to $1–3 million, indicating increased investor confidence in Ukrainian developers," the report noted.
The industry’s production capacity has significantly increased from 300,000 drones to 4 million units over the year.
In the first half of the year, the state financed the production of approximately 1 million units, making the attraction of additional funding sources crucial for the industry’s further development.
”Thanks to this research, we are establishing a systematic assessment of the Ukrainian defense tech industry. This is crucial for building partnerships with foreign companies and defense agencies — now they will have a clear understanding of the potential and capabilities that the Ukrainian industry offers. We will continue to work on making the Ukrainian defense innovation ecosystem as attractive as possible for investors and generating true technological game-changers”, – Nataliia Kushnerska, Brave1 Project Lead.
It should be noted that only $6 billion out of the required $20 billion has been allocated in the 2024 state budget for arms procurement, as reported by Oleksandr Kamyshin, former Minister of Strategic Industries, in April 2024.
The Ministry of Defense has signed contracts with 102 domestic suppliers, of which 45% are drone manufacturers, said Hlib Kanyevskyi, head of the procurement policy department at the Ministry of Defense, in early August 2024.
Read the full study “Ukraine’s Drone Industry: Investments and Product Innovations” here.
