The Brave1 defense technology cluster, with the support of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Digital Affairs, announced the start of accepting applications for the annual defense startup competition Battle Proven 2026.
The Brave1 defense technology cluster, with the support of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Digital Affairs, announced the start of accepting applications for the annual defense startup competition Battle Proven 2026.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the winners of the selection will be able to present their developments to leading international investors and representatives of the defense industry at the Defense Tech Valley summit, which will be held on September 16-17 in Lviv.
This year, the competition partners are the Unmanned Systems Forces, the Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the Second Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine «Charter», whose representatives will participate in the evaluation of projects directly on the stage of the event.
Ukrainian and foreign teams at various stages of development are invited to participate. The main selection criterion is the readiness of the technology: products must either already be working on the battlefield or be preparing to enter the front within the next year.
Depending on the maturity of their solutions, startups will be divided into three groups. The Trail Blazers category will include teams with promising conceptual developments, the Gamechangers category will include creators of products that have already passed the first field tests. The most mature teams, whose developments are systematically used by the military and are ready for scaling, will compete in the Power Players group.
Developers can apply to participate in the competition until June 15, 2026 through the official Brave1 registration form.
