Brave1, a Ukrainian defense tech platform, said some of its products have already been deployed on the front within 10 months of its founding, and it is “gradually opening up” to ideas and innovations from Kyiv’s international partners.
Founded by Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation in April 2023, Brave1 aims to accelerate innovation and technology development for Ukraine’s defense and military needs, and it provides local defense tech projects with organizational, informational and financial support.
According to Sergiy Koshman, Brave1’s international partnerships representative, the platform’s main priorities are drones (both ground and aerial), electronic warfare (EW) systems, drone countermeasures and artificial intelligence (AI), among others.
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“They include obvious things like medical technologies, anything that could save lives,” Koshman told Kyiv Post at the Kyiv International Cyber Resilience Forum (KICRF).
He said several projects have been “accepted and put into operation” without divulging further details, and that Brave1’s goal is to scale and deploy solutions within three months as opposed to years of traditional research and development (R&D).
“So, we were trying to also encourage shortening those periods for our international partners as well as developing this defense and security architecture in [the] Euro Atlantic [region],” said Koshman.
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Companies applying for assistance through Brave1 would undergo a series of evaluations conducted by industry experts, including those from the military, and they could receive orders from the ministries if successful.
“They have this pre-screening, the evaluation, then if the solution has a potential, then it is going through the more structured and more comprehensive evaluation with our experts in defense forces.
“This is actually [our] main goal, and main [key performance indicator], to pass all those from idea, solution, prototype, to the maturity capability on the battlefield as soon as possible,” said Koshman.
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Apart from fresh proposals from companies, Koshman said a separate track is being developed to solicit solutions for specific needs on the battlefield, where the platform would list out requirements for the companies to work with.
He said financial support is available through separate application tracks, including grants, and that Ukraine is “gradually opening up” to international partners for innovation collaboration to help its war efforts, though foreign projects would receive no direct financial support from the Ukrainian government now.
“We [are] now developing this track of international cooperation but of course, there won’t be grants and financial support provided from the Ukrainian government,” said Koshman.
Koshman added that supply chains remain an issue for Ukraine’s domestic defense development, but efforts are underway to improve collaboration between stakeholders and address supply chain bottlenecks.
“Certain components [were] produced by the country with the possible risks of supply chain disruption [and] certain components are so sophisticated, they don’t have governmental approval to be technology transfer to other countries,” Koshman said.
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“The innovation ecosystem that has hundreds of stakeholders requires… a lot of communications, a lot of alignment of our approaches… there are certain bottlenecks that we have to deal with for various reasons.”
