On October 3-4, Kyiv hosted the Defense Tech Valley international summit to showcase the capabilities of Ukrainian defense technologies. The main goal of the event was to create a platform for meeting and cooperation between developers and investors.
Defense Tech Valley
Defense Tech Valley brought together over 1300 participants, including nearly 100 investors and over 650 Ukrainian and foreign developers from more than 250 teams. The summit was also attended by representatives of government agencies, the Security and Defense Forces, and business.
“The name is not accidental for us, as wars are the engine of technological revolutions. Silicon Valley is one example. As early as 1933, the U.S. Navy stimulated the development of the valley by investing in the aerospace industry. The Second World War accelerated the production of radars, and the Cold War gave a boost to R&D electronics and semiconductors. This is how Silicon Valley was born,” says Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
What happened
- The first day featured pitches by 28 teams that presented solutions in the field of UAVs, AI targeting, ground robotic systems, and many other technologies. Participants also attended workshops on scaling up the defense business, discussing the legal and financial aspects of the industry.
- The second day was devoted to a conference on the development of the Ukrainian defense industry in times of war, investment opportunities and Ukraine’s place in global processes. Key speakers, including Mykhailo Fedorov, Andriy Lebedenko, Oleksandr Borniakov, Anna Hvozdyar, Admiral Mike Hewitt, and Martin Yozar, emphasized the importance of technological solutions for gaining an advantage on the battlefield.
Kyiv School of Economics together with Brave1 presented a study of the UAV market in Ukraine. In addition, the Brave1 cluster and CenSec (Denmark) signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of defense technology.
Asymmetric response
The Defense Tech Valley summit opened up new investment horizons – deals were discussed that could attract up to $50 million in investment by the end of the year. This will provide Ukrainian developers with new opportunities to develop and strengthen defense technologies.
“Technology is our asymmetric response to the enemy and a chance to gain an advantage in the war, so the conditions for Defense Tech development should be favorable for manufacturers,” Fedorov said.
According to him, more than 200 new developments appear on the Brave1 platform every month. The cluster provides government grants and regularly hosts events to introduce developers to investors to attract funding.
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