Ukrainian defense startup UForce, founded by Oleksiy Honcharuk and Oleh Rogynskyi, is betting on the Military as a Service model. The company plans to integrate various types of weapons into a single turnkey combat system for foreign customers, instead of selling individual drones or components.
Ukrainian defense startup UForce, founded by Oleksiy Honcharuk and Oleh Rogynskyi, is betting on the Military as a Service model. The company plans to integrate various types of weapons into a single turnkey combat system for foreign customers, instead of selling individual drones or components.
According to company representatives, selling individual drones will not allow building a company with a billion-dollar capitalization. Since many Ukrainian developments are based on dual-use goods, they are relatively easy to copy. UForce's success is based on a unique combination of design and knowledge of the combat application of these technologies. Forbes Ukraine writes about this.
“UForce has unique parts in product design, but also the knowledge of how to use them. That’s what’s very valuable, other countries are desperate to get it,” said Ben Wallace, a former British defense minister who joined UForce.
UForce's main customers should be the defense ministries of other countries. The startup will develop individual solutions for each customer. For example, for a country the size of Belgium, UForce offers a multi-level system: FPV drones and Nemesis bombers will patrol the territory and block the enemy, and Magura naval drones will provide coastal defense.
The integration is based on the company's own UForce software, which allows combining both its own products and third-party developments. Customers will be able to choose ammunition, and the company's R&D office is able to adapt the system to new requests in a matter of weeks.
UForce explains that their business model repeats the principles of SaaS (software as a service), which Roginsky successfully applied in his previous project People.ai.
“We can sell Nemesis itself to small units. But for maximum effect, we plan to provide a complete solution: not just a drone, but hardware and software, integration and private consulting,” explains Wallace.
The startup considers its main competitors to be Western giants: Anduril (valued at $30.5 billion), Helsing ($12 billion), and Saronic ($9.2 billion). Ukrainians plan to win due to the proven technology in real combat operations, the speed of adaptation (weeks instead of years in Western companies), and a significantly lower cost. For example, if Saronic naval drones cost up to $2 million per unit, UForce developments will cost customers less, and a flock of 5–20 such drones can replace a warship.
The company is currently preparing for a new round of investment and is already valued at $1 billion, although it does not yet have any foreign contracts. This is explained by the high potential in the defense technology market, where investors evaluate companies based on future prospects. However, the founders admit that Western markets are conservative, and it takes a huge effort to attract even one client.
“To get one client in DefenseTech, you need to invest thousands of times more effort than in the civilian sector. Losing one client in People.ai is losing a relatively small amount of money. In DefenseTech, it’s 10% of the market,” says Roginsky.
Previously, Ukrainian IT entrepreneur Yaroslav Azhnyuk shared his vision that global defense procurement of unmanned systems will soon move to a subscription model similar to streaming services or insurance.
