Serhiy Kuprienko, co-founder and CEO of the Ukrainian startup Swarmer, which creates drone swarm technology, told how he came up with the idea for such a project and where the recently raised $15 million in investment will be spent.
Serhiy Kuprienko, co-founder and CEO of the Ukrainian startup Swarmer, which creates drone swarm technology, told how he came up with the idea for such a project and where the recently raised $15 million in investment will be spent.
«One morning I woke up with the idea of making a normal, ethical Skynet. I have three children, we all live in Kyiv. And I would like to be protected by a system that I can entrust my children to and not think that one day it will fall apart», Kuprienko said in an interview with DOU.
His words refer to the media franchise «Terminator», in which the antagonist is the evil artificial intelligence Skynet.
Swarmer creates AI-based software that allows drones to coordinate their actions after launch. According to an anonymous Ukrainian officer, the technology has already been used more than a hundred times to lay mines, as well as to destroy enemy manpower, equipment, and infrastructure.
According to Serhiy Kuprienko, automatic target recognition is not yet used.
«This will never be a system where, like in some scary movie, 20 million drones flew out and they did facial recognition. We as humanity are actually very far from that», he said in an interview with dev.ua.
Speaking to DOU, Kuprienko explained that most drones in 2025 are still built around an operator. A small drone requires at least one person to operate, while a large one requires two or three, depending on the class of drone.
«This means that when you try to use 10 drones, you need at least 10 people, and this whole thing with frequency division, connection works very poorly. And for businesses, manufacturers, this means that outside of Ukraine you will not sell more than 100 drones to a client, because they do not have that many people to use them», the founder of Swarmer noted.
He reported that more than 100 meetings with investors were held to attract a record amount of $15 million for Ukrainian miltech.
«The main part will go to further development of the IP, because a lot of things are glued together with „insulating tape and sticks“. And also to adaptation, because different units require different versions of the system», said Serhiy Kuprienko.
He previously noted that these funds will be used, in particular, to develop an international presence.
