How Trypillian will spend $5M and what its first three products will be: a conversation with CEO Ivan Matveichenko
The British-Ukrainian company Trypillian has quickly become a notable player in Ukraine’s defence tech sector. In late May, the previously unknown project announced it had raised $5 million in investment from former UK minister Brooks Newmark. It later emerged that Newmark is one of Trypillian’s three co-founders.
Defender Media spoke with Newmark’s partner, war veteran and Trypillian CEO Ivan Matveichenko. He explained that Trypillian is not a classic startup. It will work on in-house R&D, but its core function is to manage a portfolio of technologies from partners and portfolio companies. Most of Newmark’s investment will go toward M&A deals.
According to Matveichenko, Trypillian has already completed two acquisitions, and the acquired teams are set to release an FPV drone and a bomber by the end of summer. The company is also finalising a long-range kamikaze drone, designed to be the most cost-effective deep-strike UAV in Ukraine. Below is Ivan Matveichenko’s full story.
From business to the front line
Just before the full-scale invasion, I was launching a property development company in Kyiv. We were scheduled to start in Q1 2022, but the war derailed everything. I took my wife to her parents in western Ukraine and joined the Armed Forces.
Later, I joined the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade and fought near Bakhmut – Klishchiivka, Kodema, Blahodatne, Sil’, Rozdolivka, Yakovlivka. I suffered three concussions – two mild ones, after which I returned to duty, and a third, more serious one that landed me in the hospital.
How Trypillian was born
While recovering in the hospital, I connected with Brooks Newmark on LinkedIn. We first talked about his humanitarian work, and eventually moved on to potential joint ventures.
Our first idea was to set up a traditional VC fund focused on promising Ukrainian defence tech startups. We met many talented engineers with great ideas but little business experience. We reviewed over 20–25 teams from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and western Ukraine. Most of them were “off the radar” – unpublicised but with strong reputations among the military. However, they were considered non-fundable by traditional VC standards.
We really liked these people and their ideas. So instead of launching a fund, we built a company that could integrate these teams and run the business side for them. They focus on engineering and product development—what they’re good at and love doing. We take care of operations, business development, and fundraising—what we’re good at. The $5 million from Brooks Newmark will mainly go toward supporting the management team and M&A activity.
How Trypillian operates
Trypillian isn’t a pure-play product startup or a classic investment firm. Think of it as a central structure that functions as both a project and administrative office for multiple defence startups.
As the managing entity, we’ll focus on key functions – project management, finance, legal, corporate structuring, capital raising, PR, GR, sales and marketing. We’ll also handle early-stage R&D like MVPs and prototyping. Scaling and manufacturing will be handled by our portfolio companies.
We currently have 12 staff in Ukraine and three in London. Trypillian’s internal team will stay under 30–50 people. But our long-term goal is to build a full-fledged corporation that stays relevant post-war.
Trypillian’s deep strike drone
Our main in-house R&D effort is a fixed-wing kamikaze drone capable of deep strikes into enemy territory. The deep strike concept is built around forcing the enemy to choose between two bad options: spend 30–50 times more to shoot down a relatively cheap drone, or let it strike ground targets unhindered. This is economic asymmetry – where defence costs vastly outweigh attack costs.
We’re currently at the prototype stage, with test flights planned this month. We won’t unveil it publicly until combat deployment begins.
I can’t disclose the cost yet – it will vary depending on configuration and client. We’re prepared to supply the Ukrainian military at production cost. The drone will come in both high-precision and simplified, budget-friendly variants. Overall pricing is in line with other Ukrainian deep strike systems – but ours is designed to be interceptable only by high-end air defences, giving us a major economic advantage. One key reason for that: our drone’s unprecedented flight altitude.
The drone is being co-developed by a five-company consortium – both Ukrainian and international. Trypillian leads the project, but we’re backed by strong technical partners, most of whom have a direct or indirect connection to Ukraine through co-founders, heritage, or relationships.
Other products in the pipeline
Alongside our own development, we’re pursuing M&A and partnerships. We’ve already acquired two teams and are preparing to launch two products with them: an FPV drone and a bomber, due by the end of summer.
At the time of acquisition, these teams had working prototypes undergoing certification and field trials with Ukrainian forces. But they lacked production capacity. We’ll handle mass production through professional partners. These products will have their own brands but sit under the Trypillian umbrella.
Read more: Dwarf Engineering CEO Vladyslav Piotrovskyi on the importance of drone standardisation
We’re not aiming for engineering novelty in these two products. Instead, we’re focused on efficiency and business viability. FPV drones and bombers aren’t highly complex, but they must be constantly adapted to battlefield realities and cost pressure.
We’re applying our business know-how to make products slightly better – cheaper, more reliable, or tailored to specific niches. That’s our way of staying relevant on the front line. As an infantryman myself, I know that most soldiers rarely see high-tech, AI-powered systems. For them, it’s all about FPVs and “Baba Yaga”-type bombers.
Our entire product line is designed first and foremost for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Development is joint: we receive feedback after every mission, review what worked and what didn’t. We’re also in talks with international partners, and there’s clear interest abroad. But our main customer will remain domestic for the foreseeable future.
Challenges in valuing Ukrainian defence tech startups
We plan to continue expanding Trypillian’s portfolio. Most of Brooks Newmark’s $5 million will go toward acquisitions.
The market currently suffers from valuation imbalances: some teams are overly ambitious, especially given their early stage. We roughly split founders into two categories.
First, the A-class founders. They’re rare but very strong. All the VCs want them. They can command high valuations – and rightly so.
Second, technically gifted engineers with good ideas but limited business knowledge. Some are open to dialogue, feedback, and compromise. We offer them a model where Trypillian invests in product development, they receive equity and a salary, and we bring the product to market together.
Others are unwilling to compromise and insist on keeping 100% ownership. Unfortunately, they’re hard to work with. From our experience: those who declined to collaborate a year ago are still where they were. Those who joined us have moved forward.
We believe consolidation in Ukraine’s defence tech market is inevitable. While active combat continues, the priority is supporting the military. Business goals are secondary. That will change after the war ends and domestic demand drops. Then, we’ll focus on acquiring Ukrainian companies that struggle to enter foreign markets on their own. We want to help them scale internationally under the Trypillian brand.
Who we’re hiring
We’re still a small team, but we’re actively hiring. Trypillian is currently recruiting for hardware engineers, DevOps, QA, PR and marketing roles. If you have relevant experience, please send us your CV – we’ll respond to everyone.
Don’t miss it: A weekly selection of the latest vacancies in Ukrainian defense tech
Most of our team are veterans, active-duty soldiers, or their family members. If you’re a veteran, please get in touch. We’ll either have a role for you now – or soon. Either way, we’ll find a way to work together.
.jpg)