Key points: Ukrainian defense tech company UFORCE has completed a $700 million funding round at a post-money valuation of $6 billion.

UFORCE CEO Oleh Rodynskyi revealed that the company's order volume has more than doubled over the past year.

Militaries around the world are hoping to draw lessons from the war in Ukraine: relatively low-cost drones are increasingly challenging traditional military equipment.

Investors are growing more bullish on autonomous weapons systems that have been battle-tested on the Ukrainian battlefield, as Ukrainian defense tech company UFORCE has completed a $700 million funding round at a valuation of $6 billion.

UFORCE develops aerial, maritime, and ground unmanned systems, as well as AI software used to coordinate and dispatch this equipment.

The company completed a $50 million funding round in March of this year at a valuation of roughly $1 billion.

The company announced on Thursday that this Series A round was co-led by Valor Equity Partners and the UK's National Wealth Fund, with participation from multiple institutions across Silicon Valley, Europe, and Asia.

UFORCE CEO Oleh Rodynskyi said in an interview that the company's order volume has more than doubled over the past year, with an order base reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, though he declined to disclose more precise figures.

He said the company's operating performance supports this valuation, and that some investors had even offered higher valuations.

"We received investment offers at much higher valuations, but we chose this round of funding because we value the resources that Valor and other investors can bring. Looking at the valuation-to-orders ratio and the valuation-to-revenue ratio, this valuation is actually not aggressive," he said.

The company plans to use the newly raised funds to expand production capacity, with manufacturing bases located in Ukraine as well as allied countries including the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.

A report released by Dealroom and Resilience Media in October showed that funding for defense tech startups in NATO and allied countries has nearly reached double the full-year total for 2025.

Rodynskyi said the company's unmanned surface vessel production has reached ten times that of comparable competitors, and it plans to continue expanding capacity significantly; the comparison figure could not be independently verified.

More defense industry news (original linked headline omitted).

Militaries around the world are studying the lessons of the war in Ukraine: relatively inexpensive drones are eroding the status of traditional equipment such as manned tanks and fighter jets, and UFORCE is using this trend to expand its business.

According to UFORCE, its "NEMESIS" drones have completed more than 300,000 combat sorties cumulatively; its MAGURA series unmanned surface vessels have participated in the destruction of more than ten Russian warships in the Black Sea.

Rodynskyi said the company has already cooperated with multiple NATO countries but declined to disclose the customer list or the proportion of its products supplied to Ukraine's domestic market versus overseas markets.

Asked whether growing international demand could divert equipment supplies away from Ukraine, he said the company is committed to prioritizing the needs of the Ukrainian military.

"We are very strict about this, ensuring that all types of Ukraine's needs come first and prioritizing deliveries."

Modern warfare — like many peers, UFORCE is trying to rewrite the cost logic of traditional warfare.

The company believes that large-scale, low-cost autonomous combat systems can provide a far more cost-effective defense solution than traditional weapons.

Rodynskyi believes Ukrainian defense tech companies have an advantage over established Western defense manufacturers: engineers can continuously receive equipment usage feedback from frontline combat units.

"There is no doubt that the pace of innovation and iteration at Ukrainian defense tech companies is far faster than at large Western prime defense contractors," he said.

Looking ahead, Rodynskyi predicts that autonomous equipment will gradually replace a large number of currently in-service manned military aircraft and vessels.

He believes that a decade from now, militaries around the world will most likely not continue purchasing brand-new manned fighter jets and frigates; however, he also acknowledged that traditional equipment such as the F-35 fighter jet will still hold significant value in the near term.