Ukrainian Drone Swarm Startup Swarmer Raises $17.9M In Record Defense Tech Funding

Ukrainian drone swarm startup Swarmer has secured $17.9 million in total funding, marking the largest publicly announced investment in a Ukrainian defense technology company since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022. The company closed a $15 million Series A round in mid-September 2025, following a $2.9 million seed round in 2023, according to Euromaidan Press.

The funding validates Ukraine’s rapidly maturing defense tech sector and signals growing investor confidence in combat-proven AI systems that enable single operators to control dozens of drones simultaneously. Swarmer’s technology has already been tested in over 82,000 actual combat missions.

Record Investment Signals Ukraine Defense Tech Momentum

The Series A round was led by Broadband Capital Investments, with participation from R-G.AI, D3 Ventures, Green Flag Ventures, Radius Capital, Network VC, and UA1 VC. Forbes estimates Swarmer’s valuation between $35-70 million, though the company has not publicly disclosed the figure.

Founded in May 2023 by Serhii Kupriienko and Alex Fink, Swarmer initially relied on $70,000 in personal investment before attracting backing from D3, the venture fund connected to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

“It was a long and difficult process. To raise a round, we had to conduct over a hundred meetings with investors,” Kupriienko told Euromaidan Press, adding: “For us, this is not just money, but also a signal to the market: it is time to invest big checks in Ukraine.”

Combat-Proven AI Enables Single-Operator Swarm Control

Swarmer’s core product, the Swarmer Platform powered by Styx AI, addresses what Kupriienko calls the “key problem on the front — a shortage of qualified pilots.” The system allows one operator to potentially control up to 20 or more drones, though practical implementation currently involves lower numbers as the company scales with partners.

“One operator can potentially control up to 20 and more drones. But in practice, the numbers are lower so far: we’re only beginning to fully integrate systems with partners at scale,” Kupriienko explained. The primary limitation isn’t software but physical logistics. “Each drone requires a team that will carry it, prepare it, check it. This is what limits the scale,” he said.

The technology has been validated through more than 82,000 combat missions. Swarmer has successfully demonstrated swarms of up to 25 drones working together in GPS-denied environments and plans to scale to combined-arms operations involving 100+ drones of various types.

Human Control Maintained For Strike Decisions

Despite advanced AI capabilities, Swarmer maintains human oversight of all targeting decisions.

“The operator is responsible for the decision to strike a target. The system can automatically cancel a task if it is inaccessible, or change the target, but the final decision to strike remains with the person,” Kupriienko stated.

On future automation, he noted: “While it’s difficult to say a specific time when AI will fully do all the work, the speed of decision-making by an automated system already significantly exceeds human capabilities. Right now everything works as in a classical army: command gives permission to eliminate a specific target.”

Training Time Drastically Reduced

The system’s intuitive design enables rapid operator training.

“Someone who just finished school can master the system in half an hour. An experienced pilot will spend a few hours, because they get a lot of ‘what if?’ — and these are the most valuable questions,” Kupriienko explained.

While originally focused on fixed-wing drones, Swarmer has expanded to work with large drones and various robotic platforms, with 90% of current work involving flying drones. The company’s 45-person team works closely with Ukrainian military units. “No complex system will work until you assemble a team and test everything together on the battlefield,” Kupriienko said.

Tech Race Against Russia Drives Urgency

Kupriienko frames the competitive landscape in stark terms, particularly regarding Russian capabilities.

“The enemy has a significant resource advantage and can afford systematic planning of technology development. They work according to a roadmap: conditionally, in November they launch one solution, in December — another. They have the strategic initiative and can regulate the intensity of hostilities, and we are forced to react,” he stated.

This asymmetry creates urgency for Ukrainian developers. “So we’re not just in a chase, but in a serious race,” Kupriienko added. Within Ukraine, Swarmer cooperates rather than competes with other drone developers.

“In Ukraine, there are a few teams, but I don’t consider them competitors — we’re all still too far from true competition. We’d rather share experience and support each other,” he explained.

Future Strategy: Acquisition Or IPO

Regarding long-term direction, Kupriienko outlined clear plans:

“We have a clear strategy: in the long term, the company will either be acquired by a major market player or go public. For me, it is important that in any case we preserve work with the Ukrainian market and prioritize our military.”

Beyond defense, civilian applications exist but remain secondary.

“Yes, we have several projects, but right now they are not a priority. We will return to them after victory. For example, electrical grid inspection or border control — these are tasks that are perfectly solved by automation,” Kupriienko noted.

DroneXL’s Take on Swarmer

This funding round represents a watershed moment for Ukraine’s defense tech sector that we’ve been tracking closely since the invasion began. We first reported on Swarmer in September 2025 when The Wall Street Journal documented their combat deployment, and the progress since then has been remarkable.

The $17.9 million total validates what we’ve argued consistently: direct partnerships with Ukrainian manufacturers deliver better results faster than routing funds through traditional Western contractors. These companies aren’t theorizing about drone warfare—they’re iterating daily based on real combat feedback, creating a development cycle Western defense giants simply cannot match.

Eric Schmidt’s D3 fund backing is particularly notable. The former Google CEO has emerged as one of the most aggressive investors in Ukrainian defense tech, with his Swift Beat company already producing hundreds of thousands of interceptor drones for Ukraine. D3’s involvement in Swarmer’s seed round shows Schmidt recognized the company’s potential early.

Kupriienko’s frank assessment of the Russia tech race is sobering. Russia’s resource advantage and systematic development approach means Ukrainian companies must innovate faster just to maintain parity. The 82,000+ combat missions provide Swarmer an unmatched training dataset, but Russia’s scale remains formidable.

The human-in-the-loop emphasis deserves attention. As drone autonomy advances globally, Swarmer’s insistence on human strike authorization demonstrates responsible AI development even under extreme wartime pressure. This approach could influence how NATO allies adopt similar systems.

For the broader drone industry, Swarmer represents the future: AI-powered coordination enabling force multiplication without proportional increases in trained operators. Their post-war civilian applications—infrastructure inspection, border control, precision agriculture—could transform how we think about commercial drone operations.

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