{"id":103260,"date":"2026-09-27T12:41:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefender.media\/?p=103260"},"modified":"2026-09-27T12:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:46:53","slug":"zmiyar-startup-competition-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefender.media\/en\/2026\/09\/zmiyar-startup-competition-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence tech startup Zmiyar takes second place at IT Arena Startup Competition 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ukrainian defence tech startup Zmiyar took second place in the IT Arena Startup Competition 2026 and received $20,000, according to the Lviv IT Cluster<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zmiyar<\/a> is developing a networked command-and-control system for ‘smart’ minefields. It enables the remote activation and deactivation of mines<\/a>, real-time status monitoring and the display of their locations on a digital map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
Turning ordinary mines into smart ones: What Victor Shapovalov\u2019s startup ZMIYAR is working on<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Energy tech startup Sirocco Energy took first place and received $30,000. Third place and $10,000 went to bionic prosthetics developer Versi Bionics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total prize pool for the IT Arena Startup Competition 2026 was $65,000. Forty teams working in defence tech, AI, robotics, energy, medicine, fintech, cybersecurity and enterprise software were selected for the semi-finals. No separate competition for defence teams was held this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defender also reported yesterday that former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced the laun<\/a>c<\/a>h of the Army of Robots<\/a> at Lviv IT Arena 2026. The project will bring together a venture fund investing in tech teams, Fedorov\u2019s own defence tech companies and an R&D unit \u201cfocused on continuously finding, developing and testing new solutions\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Developer of \u201csmart\u201d minefield management system receives $20,000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":103259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_featured_category_order":0,"_article_badge":"featured","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[215,216,1418],"class_list":["post-103260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation","tag-grants","tag-industry","tag-zmiyar","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nZmiyar takes second place at IT Arena Startup Competition 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Developer of \u201csmart\u201d minefield management system receives $20,000. 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