EU and Ukraine invest €100M in BraveTech EU to fund battlefield game-changers

Ukraine and the EU launch BraveTech EU — a new initiative to support the defence sector with €100 million allocated to finding technological game-changers for the war. The project was announced at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) in Rome by Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and EU Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius.

According to Fedorov, this is the first large-scale tech alliance between Ukraine and Europe. Each side will contribute €50 million to support breakthrough defence innovations.

On the Ukrainian side, the project will be coordinated by Brave1 — the state-backed defence tech cluster and the largest investor in Ukraine’s defence tech ecosystem. On the EU side, the programme will be managed by the European Defence Innovation Office (EUDIO), based in Kyiv. Funding will be provided through the European Defence Fund (EDF) and the EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS).

Fedorov notes that BraveTech EU will roll out in two phases. During the seed stage, scheduled for autumn 2025, a series of hackathons focused on frontline needs will take place, alongside matchmaking between startups, investors, and companies.

The scale-up stage, which will run through 2026, will involve mobilising additional resources to provide grants to startups. “This will allow breakthrough solutions developed during the hackathons to scale,” Fedorov wrote.