Robotics Startups Milrem and Frontline Team Up; MITS Capital Focuses on Supply Chain Independence from China; Brave1 Defense Tech Valley Conference
Issue 37: Honouring Ukraine. An interview with MITS Capital; a robotics collaboration born at the Darkstar Bootcamp; and the Brave1 Defense Tech Valley event
Good afternoon from the team at Resilience Media
The Trump-Putin summit in Alaska produced no surprises, and led to more ‘half-baked Alaska’ headlines than I care to count. In reality, the war on the European Union’s doorstep rages on and our friends in Ukraine continue to suffer very real and horrifying hardships. In recognition of our Ukrainian friends and colleagues, this week we’re highlighting some of our recent writing on the Ukrainian startup ecosystem.
Our Editor-at-large, John Biggs, interviewed Denys Gurak, COO and Chief Investment Officer of MITS Capital. MITS Capital counts among its portfolio many of the top drone companies in Ukraine, and is steadily building support for more EU-exports and manufacturing on NATO soil, plus launching a defence tech startup accelerator. You can watch this video in our Investor Watch section below.
Last week Milrem Robotics and Frontline Robotics announced a collaboration to use Frontline’s autonomous tech to protect Milrem’s tanks. We focussed on this partnership because both products are already being used on the frontline in Ukraine and because their relationship was born at a recent Darkstar Bootcamp. You can read the full piece via our Startup Watch section below.
We are also very pleased to be a media partner of the Brave1 Defense Tech Valley conference, held in Lviv on September 16-17. This will be a significant event at a critical time. Drop us a line to meet our writer there.
Elsewhere on Resilience Media, Paul Sawers dives into how European open source startups can capitalise on the rush to digital sovereignty, and we take a trip back to Riihimäki, Finland to report on Millog’s new defence testing centre housed in this innovative town on the Russian border.
Like our European political leaders, we stand with our friends in Ukraine during this particularly difficult week.
-Leslie, co-founder, Resilience Media
Resilience Media’s John Biggs speaks with Denys Gurak, COO and Chief Investment Officer at MITS Capital in Kyiv. MITS - short for “might” in Ukrainian - is an investment group backing Ukraine’s fast-growing defence technology sector, with a special focus on drone warfare and supply chain independence from China.
Gurak explains why Ukraine’s defence industry is uniquely positioned to serve NATO and Western allies, tracing its roots back to the Soviet era’s massive aerospace and defence workforce. He outlines how MITS Capital’s portfolio companies are replacing critical Chinese-made components with domestic solutions, and why Ukraine’s low-cost, high-skill manufacturing base is becoming essential for Western weapons systems. Watch the video here.
Frontline Robotics, a Ukrainian startup that develops unmanned ground systems, is teaming up with Milrem Robotics, a developer of autonomous vehicles and other systems based out of Estonia. Milrem said it will integrate BURIA – Frontline's remotely-controlled Mk19 grenade launcher – into its own THeMIS vehicle.
Frontline has confirmed to Resilience Media that Milrem is not taking a strategic investment in its business as part of the deal, but from what we understand, the companies are seeing this as the start of a partnership and more collaborations in the future. Read more here.
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