Swarmer acquires Ukrainian UGV and UAV manufacturer Ratel Robotics for $224m – and this is just the beginning

Ukrainian-American company Swarmer is acquiring Ukrainian UGV and UAV manufacturer Ratel Robotics. The deal is worth $224m, and the parties plan to develop a universal platform for launching UAVs, Swarmer reported.

The agreement includes cash and shares. Swarmer’s share price currently stands at $35.4, and the company’s market capitalisation is $562.9m.

Swarmer went public on the NASDAQ in March 2026, and the company’s IPO became one of the most successful in recent years. At its peak, the company’s valuation exceeded $800m.

Roman Sulzhyk, founder of the Resist.UA fund, explains that this is exactly why businesses conduct IPOs – following a successful stock market listing, a company’s shares become a valuable currency that can be used to buy up other assets.

‘It no longer matters whether Swarmer has or had its own product – now, one way or another, it will appear thanks to the companies Swarmer is absorbing’, – Sulzhyk adds. According to him, Ratel is a good asset, a market-known manufacturer of UGVs and, more recently, UAVs as well.

Ratel Robotics manufactures several types of UGVs suited to logistics, strike missions and demining. In summer, the company unveiled its first strike FPV drone K1, and later also revealed a new reconnaissance UAV, the R1.

‘From the perspective of Ukrainian companies, most of them can’t develop the infrastructure necessary to sell worldwide’, – Swarmer co-founder Alex Fink explains in comments to WSJ. ‘So they are looking for partners who can give them resources’.

Fink took over the company after the recent dismissal of Serhii Kupriienko – another Swarmer co-founder – from the position of CEO. ‘Serhii’s decision to leave was his personal choice’, – a Swarmer spokesperson explained to Defender.

Ratel Robotics employs more than 300 people, who will join Swarmer. As a result, the combined company will have close to 500 employees. Ostapchuk will continue to serve as founder and CEO of Ratel Robotics and will report to Fink.

Erik Prince, who serves as non-executive chairman of Swarmer’s board of directors, stated that the company wants to continue acquiring technology companies whose products have been tested on the battlefield.

According to Sulzhyk, the strategy behind such acquisitions is driven by Michael Rapoport, managing partner of the Broadband Capital Investments fund, who became the lead investor in Swarmer’s $15 million Series A round that preceded the IPO.

‘Rapoport realised there is enormous demand for Ukrainian defence tech, chose a company that became the starting point, took it public, and now that company will absorb other valuable assets and become filled with meaning’, – says the managing partner of Resist.UA.

Sulzhyk notes that Rapoport is very experienced in IPO matters and has taken companies public ‘almost his entire life’. According to the Ukrainian investor’s estimate, Broadband Capital Investments earned at least $50m on Swarmer’s IPO.

‘Of course, Swarmer is buying Ratel at a very inflated price, but the deal is being closed mostly in shares, – notes the founder of Resist.UA. – And the synergy will likely make the combined company significantly more valuable, in which case this is unambiguously a profitable deal for Swarmer’.

The use of UGVs at the frontline has been growing since the start of 2026. While the military carried out 7,511 missions with them in January, that number had risen to 25,143 operations by August. Ukrainian ground drone manufacturers regularly announce partnerships with foreign companies. For example, American company Empery Digital and AIDronesUA signed a memorandum on investment and joint production of the MAUL UGV.

Swarmer is developing AI-based software that enables control of drone swarms. In August, the company published its financial report for Q2 2026. The developer received more revenue than in the first quarter, having begun receiving payments under a contract with drone manufacturer SkyKnight.

Defender Media has reached out for comment to Ratel’s press office and to the company’s CEO, Taras Ostapchuk, but had not received a response at the time of publication.