Ukrainian defence startup Falcons secures investment from Green Flag Ventures

Ukrainian defence startup Falcons has attracted funding from the US venture capital fund Green Flag Ventures. The raised investment will be used to scale up production of the ETER radio direction-finding system, obtain NATO standardisation, and prepare for entry into global markets.

The parties have not disclosed the amount of the investment. Svitlana Braslavska, the co-founder and COO of Falcons, told Defender Media that it is a “typical amount of early-stage investment for Green Flag Ventures, sufficient for scaling production, expanding the team and preparing for NATO standardisation”. In their previous interviews, Green Flag Ventures founders Justin Zeefe and Deborah Fairlamb noted that the fund’s cheque size ranges from $100,000 to $1.2 million per project.

The Falcons company specialises in creating affordable defence solutions that operate without a GPS signal. Its flagship product ETER helps to detect enemy drones, communication equipment and electronic warfare systems.

The company says that the system has already proven its effectiveness on the battlefield – in particular, it contributed to the destruction of one of the Russian systems worth about $90 million. Yehor Dudinov, co-founder and CEO of Falcons, clarifies that during this operation the ETER system was used in combination with other means of the Defence Forces to detect and localise the enemy.

According to the developer, ETER is 30–50 times cheaper than similar NATO solutions, and in combat conditions has demonstrated a coverage of over 600 km.

Yehor Dudinov says the raised funds will primarily be used to expand the team and develop a strategy for entering the NATO countries market. “We plan to direct part of the investment towards market research, production planning and creating ready-made solutions, so that Ukrainian technologies can enter global markets faster and from a stronger position once the export is officially opened,” he added.

Falcons has received grants from the Brave1 cluster for three consecutive years and has also attracted funds from an angel investor.

Green Flag Ventures is a US venture capital fund that invests in Ukrainian start-ups offering solutions in the fields of dual-use technologies, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The fund’s previous investments include Ukrainian projects Swarmer, HIMERA, Kara Dag and Astra Nav.