ProgrammeDefenceUkraineReported

Ukraine launches Brave1, a state cluster for military technology start-ups

26 Apr 2023Source: Associated Press (via News4JAX)Also reported by Euromaidan Press

On 26 April 2023 Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Digital Transformation signed a memorandum creating Brave1, a cluster that links the state, the military and private developers of drones and other military technology, with more than 100 million hryvnias (about $2.7 million) set aside for projects. By early September it had received 412 submissions, 200 had undergone military review and funded 15 projects worth $225,000, including AI platforms for analysis.

Why it matters

Ukrainian drone and AI developers got a government channel to have products tested by the military and funded, during a war where drones were in daily use.

When: 26 Apr 2023
ID: WTA-N-2023-0054
Where: Ukraine
Who: Brave1, Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine; Mykhailo Fedorov, Oleksii Reznikov
Topics: Military AI, Robotics, Investment and financing

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from Associated Press (via News4JAX) and the reporting credited above. We could not open the primary document, so it is marked Reported. Checked against the source on 9 Oct 2026.

Read the original at Associated Press (via News4JAX)

Source copy: download the page as saved on 18 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Next stop on this Storyline: What happened nextZelensky orders a separate Unmanned Systems Forces branch for Ukraine’s military6 Feb 2024

Data to measure this

Compare the years before 2023 with the years since in these series.

OECD.AI: venture capital investments in AI start-upsOECD.AI (data from Preqin)Venture capital invested in AI start-ups by country and industry, with series for generative AI and AI compute start-ups.live · query tool
Crunchbase company and funding dataCrunchbase · paidPrivate company profiles, funding rounds and acquisitions.live · api · API
Dealroom AI sector dataDealroom.co · paidAI start-ups, unicorns and venture funding by country, city, stage and sub-sector.live · query tool

All data for Ukraine

Cite this story

WTA-N-2023-0054: “Ukraine launches Brave1, a state cluster for military technology start-ups.” wheresthe.ai, 26 Apr 2023. https://wheresthe.ai/d/ua-brave1-defence-tech-cluster-2023-04/ (source: Associated Press (via News4JAX)).

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