Ukraine-Founded Drone Maker UForce Raises $700 Million at a $6 Billion Valuation

UForce, a defence technology company born out of Ukraine's battlefield drone industry, said on 12 November that it had raised $700 million in a Series A round at a $6 billion valuation. Forbes Ukraine described it as the largest funding round in the history of Ukrainian startups, and the deal was also reported by CNBC and Reuters.

A sixfold jump in eight months

The round was co-led by US investment firm Valor Equity Partners and the UK's state-backed National Wealth Fund. According to Reuters, the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund also took part. CNBC reported that other investors came from Silicon Valley, Europe and Asia, though they were not named.

The new price tag marks a steep climb. As recently as March, UForce raised $50 million at a valuation of around $1 billion. Reuters reports that the company is headquartered in London, with hubs in Kyiv and Washington.

Chief executive Oleg Rogynskyy told CNBC the company had turned down richer terms. "We were getting offers with much higher valuation, but we chose this one because of Valor and the rest of the investors," he said, adding that relative to bookings and revenue the valuation was not aggressive.

What UForce builds

The company develops uncrewed systems that operate in the air, at sea and on land, together with AI-driven software that coordinates them. Products highlighted by CNBC and Reuters include:

• MAGURA naval drones, which the company says have contributed to the destruction of more than a dozen Russian warships in the Black Sea;
• NEMESIS strike drones, which UForce says have flown more than 300,000 combat missions;
• ground and aerial platforms linked by a shared command-and-control layer.

Rogynskyy said bookings had more than doubled over the past year from a base of several hundred million dollars, but the company declined to give exact figures. UForce also works with several NATO members, which it did not identify.

Where the money goes

The proceeds will be used to scale up manufacturing in Ukraine and in allied markets, including the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East. Rogynskyy stressed that Ukraine remains the first customer. "We make sure that we deliver on all Ukrainian needs first and foremost," he told CNBC.

Building plants abroad serves two purposes. Western governments increasingly want weapons produced on their own soil, while Ukrainian manufacturers need ways to shield output from Russian missile and drone strikes on industrial sites.

Why it matters

The deal shows that international capital is willing to pay a premium for combat-tested Ukrainian defence technology. Reuters noted that the valuation places UForce among Europe's most highly valued tech startups, a group that includes France's Mistral at about $24 billion and ElevenLabs at about $22 billion.

For Ukraine's economy, the round matters on several levels. Defence manufacturing has become one of the few sectors growing rapidly despite the war. The involvement of a British state fund and a vehicle created under the US-Ukraine minerals and reconstruction partnership signals government-level interest in the sector. And the price sets a benchmark for other Ukrainian drone makers looking for capital.

There are caveats. Commentators point out that the pool of buyers for military hardware is limited and that valuations across defence tech already look stretched. The coming months will show whether UForce can turn its war chest into a matching expansion of output and contracts.