Erik Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater, is backing a Ukrainian firm that develops software to control drone swarms and is actively pursuing sales to the U.S. military. Prince joined the board of the drone software company Swarmer last year and is promoting its potential to scale into Western markets.
Prince said that four years of conflict with Russia have given Ukrainian defence companies an opportunity to rapidly evolve practical, low-cost unmanned systems, software and electronic warfare capabilities. "Ukraine is the leading battle laboratory in the world," he said, adding that U.S. defence firms face headwinds from higher manufacturing costs and less battlefield experience. "There's a lot of phenomenal defence tech in Ukraine that needs to come to the West quickly, properly and at scale."
The dynamics of recent conflicts - including the war in Ukraine and fighting in the Middle East - have highlighted how relatively inexpensive technologies such as drones, autonomous boats, jamming gear and advanced software can inflict outsized effects against far more expensive legacy platforms like fighter jets and missiles built by major defence contractors.
Swarmer, founded in 2023 to create software enabling soldiers to control swarms of drones, raised $15 million in a Nasdaq public offering this week. The company is part of a wider wave of Ukraine-based military technology firms targeting customers in the U.S. and Europe.
Other firms from Ukraine are also drawing investor attention. UFORCE, the manufacturer of the Magura unmanned speedboats that have been used to sink multiple Russian vessels, said it has attracted funding from U.S. investors at a $1 billion valuation, though it has not disclosed a U.S. contract.
Separately, the U.S. Army has deployed a large shipment of Ukrainian-made drones to the Middle East developed by Project Eagle, a firm backed by former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. Schmidt was an early backer of Swarmer as well.
The U.S. chief executive of Swarmer, Alex Fink, said the companys software can manage nearly 700 drones, a capability that has not yet been publicly demonstrated. Swarmer's stock has climbed sharply, rising roughly 500 percent this week.
Despite the operational attention and strong market reaction, Swarmer remains unprofitable and does not yet hold U.S. military contracts. The company reported just over $300,000 in revenue for 2025, a small decline from 2024, while losses widened to more than $8 million. In a regulatory filing, Swarmer projected that it expects to generate $33 million in revenue over the next two years.
Market and sector implications
- Defence and aerospace contractors face new competitive pressure from lower-cost, battlefield-tested systems produced by Ukraine-based firms.
- Investors are showing heightened appetite for military technology names tied to Ukraine, as reflected in share-price volatility and capital raises.
- Procurement patterns of western militaries may shift toward software-centric and swarm-capable unmanned systems if validation and contracts follow.