London-based defence-technology company UFORCE has raised $700m (£530m) in a Series A round at a valuation of $6bn (£4.5bn).
The company was founded in Ukraine and has major hubs in Kyiv and Washington, DC.
The round was co-led by Valor Equity Partners and the UK National Wealth Fund, with participation from the U.S.-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund (URIF).
UFORCE builds autonomous uncrewed platforms across sea, land and air, together with the AI software, orchestration and command-and-control layer that operates them.
The company said its goal is to make defence a hundred times cheaper than offensive operations.
UFORCE said URIF’s investment will support its operations in Ukraine, including staffing, research and development, and new product development.
The round also drew investors from Silicon Valley, Europe and Asia, including Menlo Ventures, Xantium and Hiro Capital.
Existing investors Shield Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Lakestar and Squadra also increased their stakes.
General (Ret.) Christopher G. Cavoli, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and a partner at Valor Equity Partners, joins the UFORCE board.
UFORCE said the funding will let it expand and distribute production capacity across the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.
It said this distributed capacity will allow continuous production to supply front-line troops with uncrewed systems despite continued attacks in Ukraine.
The new capital will also support expanded R&D and increased production of the MAGURA USV, NEMESIS UAV, LIUT UGV and PREDATOR turret families.
UFORCE said it will keep working with partners in allied nations, including converting existing maritime and automotive manufacturing capacity to support defence needs.
It recently announced a partnership with ReconCraft to scale US manufacturing of MAGURA USVs.
The round also lets UFORCE deepen its role as a founding member of the EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance.
Oleg Rogynskyy, chief executive of UFORCE, said: “This investment will help us scale production for Ukraine and bring to allies solutions they can field, integrate and sustain at the speed of modern combat. UFORCE and our investors are united in our determination to make aggression unaffordable.”
Oliver Holbourn, chief executive of the UK National Wealth Fund, said: “Through the National Wealth Fund’s support, UFORCE’s expansion is bringing the production, engineering and application of combat tested autonomous systems to the UK.”
Conor Coleman, Head of Investments of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation on behalf of URIF, said: “This deal is URIF’s largest investment in the emerging technology sector to date”.
According to UFORCE, its MAGURA family of uncrewed surface vessels has contributed to the destruction of more than a dozen Russian warships in the Black Sea.
It also said its NEMESIS Class 1 heavy strike UAV platforms have made more than 300,000 combat flights and been adopted across 100+ units.
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