We are not necessarily the best at creating DefTech, but we are definitely the best at applying it. Today, Ukraine is a world leader in the use, adaptation, testing and piloting of defense technologies. And this experience is already worth exporting. We have something to teach the world.
This was stated by Ivan Petrenko, Managing Partner of Angel One Fund and CEO of Ideas Center UCU, during the Invest Summit.Jazz Business in Lviv, where he spoke at the panel discussion “Investments in Defense: Which Projects Are Still Worth Investing In?”
Key thoughts from his speech:
- Ukraine needs a single analytical and strategic center – not to tell us who to invest in, but to set directions: what needs exist, what is really important, what will be relevant in 1, 3, 5 years.
- Ukrainian DefTech lacks a long-term strategy. It needs R&D, grants, high-quality university education, personnel, and most importantly, vision. Today, investors often face the same products from different teams that don’t even know about each other. And this is a systemic problem.
- We have to attract the best foreign specialists. Ukraine is a battlefield innovation lab. But for it to become a magnet for global experts, we need to create an environment for work and exchange of experience.
- Our startups lack GR. Europe is already allocating future billions of defense budgets. But they do not fully understand what modern warfare looks like. And we don’t know how to explain it to them. We need to learn how to talk to governments and formulate the rules of the game as equals.
- The world thinks about war “tomorrow” and therefore about DeepTech. Drones are already today. But new systems, capabilities, infrastructure solutions are about the future. And this is what we need to invest in. Not just “what to do,” but “how to do it better and more systematically.”
- It is not products that need to be sold, but capabilities. A network that protects against drones is a useful thing, but it is not a “unicorn.” But an entire defense system is an opportunity, a scale, and a completely different conversation for investors.
DefTech is about whether we can combine our war experience, engineering courage, and strategic vision into one. Today, we have a chance not just to catch up with the world, but to become the ones who shape the new rules.
