Front Ventures investment firm opens office in Lviv: what it will do

Swedish investment firm Front Ventures has opened an office in Lviv and hired a local investment manager. The firm hopes to strengthen its presence in Ukraine and provide better support to both its existing portfolio companies and new Ukrainian defence enterprises, Front Ventures CEO Jonas Malmgren disclosed to Defender Media.

The Ukrainian office will be led by Nazar Shestopalov, a lawyer, according to his LinkedIn profile. He will be responsible for liaising with authorities regarding import, export, and licensing matters. Through this, Front Ventures expects to create better conditions for Swedish companies looking to establish cooperation with Ukraine’s defence industry.

“We see an increase in joint venture requests on component production and also more export/import requests from both Ukrainian and Swedish companies”, Jonas Malmgren comments. For this reason, Front Ventures will also enter into a partnership with a law firm in Lviv to support the investor.

In 2026, the Swedish firm intends to focus on the following areas: joint UAV development, including design, and the manufacturing of drone components. The CEO states that the company is currently working on a new area: payload manufacturing in Sweden, intended for interceptor and strike drones used by Ukraine.

Front Ventures is expanding its partnership with Brave1 and will take part in more local events and demo days. In addition, the investor plans to invest in a further 2-4 Ukrainian companies this year. It will also assist companies in its portfolio with scaling up production and raising new capital in 2026.

Among the businesses in which Front Ventures has invested in Ukraine are:

• Aeromotors, a manufacturer of electric motors for drones;
• Black Forest Systems, a Ukrainian-Estonian developer of unmanned aerial vehicles;
• Sky Hunter, a developer of the interceptor drone guidance app.