Auterion and Airlogix are looking to replicate their German manufacturing partnership across Europe and North America, as the companies race to scale Ukrainian battlefield technology beyond the country’s borders.
Speaking at the Resilience Conference on Monday, Airlogix CEO Vitalii Kolesnichenko said the Ukrainian drone maker is pursuing similar partnerships in Canada and the UK, with Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the US also in its sights.
The expansion builds on a joint venture between Airlogix and Auterion, which is producing AI-guided strike drones in Germany under a contract Resilience Media understands is worth $300 million.
For Airlogix, building outside Ukraine has become increasingly important as Russian attacks make domestic manufacturing more difficult. Kolesnichenko said the company had seen production sites destroyed, forcing it to split its manufacturing cycle across multiple locations.
“We experienced a couple of times destroyed locations, and we basically were forced to break down our manufacturing cycles [into] many, many small pieces,” he said.
The German partnership moved unusually quickly by defence procurement standards. Kolesnichenko said he called Auterion CEO Lorenz Meier in January, the pair signed an MOU in February, and a contract followed within months.
“We’ve been moving so fast, insanely fast,” he said, crediting support from both the German and Ukrainian governments and strong demand from Ukraine’s armed forces. “Now we have a recipe. We know how to do it.”
Meier said the model allows Auterion, which develops autonomy software rather than manufacturing drones itself, to pair Ukrainian systems and battlefield experience with production capacity elsewhere.
“We are an autonomy company. We’re not a manufacturing company, but in partnership, we can help to scale production,” he said.
That approach is already producing systems at scale. Meier said Auterion expects to ship 100,000 drones through its partners this year, after growing threefold for three consecutive years.
The company is also preparing to say more about its finances. Resilience Media reported earlier this year that Auterion was profitable and looking at raising $200 million at a valuation north of $1.2 billion, though it said at the time it was not actively fundraising.
Asked about fundraising on stage, Meier said: “I think we’re set for now. We will have news later in the year.” He added that Auterion had turned profitable despite doubling its headcount.
Airlogix, meanwhile, is still raising to keep up with demand. Kolesnichenko said the company had recently closed one round and started another, but acknowledged that its concentration in Ukraine continues to make some investors nervous.
“No matter how successful you are, no matter how good you are right now, a lot of investors… [fear] that everything [is] concentrated in Ukraine,” he said.
That is precisely what the growing network of overseas partnerships is intended to change, he added.
