Two years ago today, we began a discussion that developed into Resilience Conference. We firmly believed then, as we do now, that Ukraine is fighting to defend all of our democracies. We realised that unless tech founders could understand the Ukrainian reality, they wouldn’t understand the urgency. An archetype in those conversations was Yaroslav Azhnyuk, the Ukrainian founder and CEO of The Fourth Law. A former Y Combinator founder with a consumer startup who took his expertise and turned it toward the defence of his country.
This is why it was important to us to run TheFourthLaw’s funding announcement this morning. Following pieces we’ve done on Yaroslav and the Ukrainian export programme, this raise is a strong signal in the Ukrainian startup market and beyond about the viability and scalability of Ukrainian defence tech startups.
Resilience Conference Speaker Announcement
With only 15 days to go until our Early Bird ticket sales end, we’re pleased to announce a more exceptional startup leaders who will join us on stage.
Oluseun Taiwo
Oluseun Taiwo, founder and CEO of Solideon is on a mission to reengage the arsenal of democracy, building 3D printed rockets at scale. Having appeared on our stage in Munich, he’s such an incredible founder, we’re thrilled to have him back for the main conference.
Cameron McCord
As co-founder and CEO of Nominal, Cameron McCord has seen most of the defence tech industry during his career. We’re particularly excited to hear about his path from working at a defence prime, to investing, to startup employee, to General Catalyst-backed founder.
Lorenz Meier
Auterion is battle-tested and growing under the leadership of Lorenz Meier, CEO. He will speak on our stage about Auterion’s global expansion and software-hardware partnerships.
Buy your ticket now and we’ll be back in your inbox next week.
-Leslie, co-founder, Resilience Media
Resilience Media is supporting the Estonian funding organisation Help99. They have done great work raising money to send hardware directly to Ukraine. We will be writing more about this, but today we want to focus on a campaign run out of the UK.
Help99 produce wonderful shoulder patches for their campaign funders. We recently received this patch and handwritten note after funding a campaign. Please contribute to the 4th UK Battalion campaign now and have a direct impact on Ukraine’s fight for freedom.
Valarian didn’t begin as a defence company. Founded in 2020 by fintech veteran Max Buchan, the London-based firm was initially aimed at helping enterprises control where and how their data moved. But four later, its technology is being built for the battlefields, designed for NATO allies, and focused on the future of digital sovereignty across Europe.
The pivot began with a realisation: geopolitical shifts—Brexit, Ukraine, Hong Kong, and rising tensions in Taiwan—weren’t just physical conflicts. They were digital too. Control over information flow, infrastructure, and communication systems had become matters of national security. Read the full piece here.
Europe
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Startups
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Ukraine
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