Good morning from the team at Resilience Media
In December, Resilience Media received a press release announcing the UK’s first defence tech unicorn. The months-long investigation that followed is detailed in our article The Mystery of the British Unicorn, the story of our dealings with Roark Aerospace, the Unicorn we couldn’t find. This piece is available to our paid subscribers.
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In the Deals section below, we dive into Rivan’s recent investment led by IQ Capital, as well as the Kraken-Anduril partnership. In the latest Dispatch from Ukraine, contributor Luke Smith sits down with Roman Sulzhyk from Resist.UA. Tiberius Aerospace said that it has completed the first successful demonstration of a new projectile that can be launched from standard howitzers but perform on part with more costly missile systems, which Editor-at-Large John Biggs reports on in our Startup Watch section.
Our next event is Resilience Conference Copenhagen, on May 11. We are thrilled to announce participation from EIFO, Systematic, Arctic Research and Development, D3, Lakestar, and more. They are leaders in defence investment, and in support for Ukraine, which is a story we will explore at the conference. Get your ticket today.
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We’ve published all of the videos from Resilience Conference Warsaw, which you can watch here. Elsewhere on Resilience Media:
- Where are Poland’s defence unicorns?
- Sten Tamkivi: Poland’s defence start-ups should be seen as future GDP drivers
- NCSC sounds resilience warning as cyberattacks threaten real-world disruption
- Countering Iran’s UAS swarms ‘requires compressing the kill chain’
- In the era of precise mass, FPVs are outgrowing the pilot
I’ll be back in your inboxes next week. Thanks for reading.
-Leslie Hitchcock, co-founder and Publisher, Resilience Media
Rivan raises €28.7M to increase synthetic fuel production in Europe
- UK-based startup Rivan has raised €28.7 million to expand domestic synthetic fuel production across Europe.
- The round was led by IQ Capital with participation from Plural. It follows a €11.4 million seed round closed roughly ten months earlier.
- The new funding will support deployment and manufacturing scale. First, they will build out Project Starwell, a plant in Wiltshire, England. It will be the “largest SNG plant in Europe and the first time SNG has ever been injected into the UK gas grid,” according to CEO Harvey Hodd.
Anduril taps UK’s Kraken to fast-track small USVs into US Navy hybrid fleet push
- Announced at Sea-Air-Space in Washington, the partnership centres on developing and delivering small, fast, “quick-reaction” USVs aimed at both US and allied requirements.
- The companies say Kraken’s K5 KRAKEN and K7 SABRE platforms will be manufactured and integrated under licence in the United States, paired with modular payloads intended to slot into a wider ecosystem of autonomous systems.
- Instead of spending years designing something new, the pair is working with existing boats and wiring them into a broader mission system so they can slot into US and NATO operations.
Tiberius says it’s successfully tested Sceptre munitions that behave like more costly missiles
John Biggs, Editor at Large
One of the big themes running through recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East has been how older, expensive “exquisite” weapons are being counteracted by a wave of new defence tech that is faster, cheaper and more advanced with autonomy and other capabilities. Today comes the latest instalment in that story, one that helps NATO-allied forces — already heavy with legacy equipment — update in a more cost-effective way.
Tiberius Aerospace said that it has completed the first successful demonstration of a new projectile that can be launched from standard howitzers but perform on part with more costly missile systems.
Tiberius — a UK and US startup — said that the projectile was launched as part of the tests it’s carrying out of its flagship Sceptre liquid munitions. The “liquid-fuelled ramjet projectile” gets launched from a 155mm howitzer but works like a precision-guided munition.
Tiberius said that the testing that was recently completed in New Mexico, in the US, saw the projectiles reach ranges of up to 150 kilometres. (This is roughly the distance, for example, between London and Calais, or between the Ukraine border and Kursk or Belgorod in Russia.) The plan is to continue testing to increase the range further.
The projectiles are capable of travelling at speeds of around Mach 3.5 and going up to altitudes of 65,000 feet, making the projectiles capable of bypassing common jamming and other electronic warfare interference. The projectiles can support payloads of up to 5.2 kilograms and they have demonstrated circular error probability of less than 5 metres, the company added.
Most importantly, the munitions can be manufactured in existing factories, reducing the capital expenditure and operating costs needed to get into production.
How to find the needle in the startup haystack in Ukraine: observations from an early-stage VC
Luke Smith, Contributor
After an investor demo day in early 2022, Roman Sulzhyk, head of investment at early-stage venture capital firm Resist.UA, found himself staring at a vat of solid rocket fuel brewing in a garage in a Kyiv suburb.
The tech was impressive, and so was the team — a handful of programmers and chemists, one of whom had been, in her own words, “about to go work at McDonald’s” before getting picked up by the startup.
These brilliant “kids” (as Sulzhyk calls them) had discovered that reducing the size of certain chemical components from 50 nanometers to 30 made the fuel polymerise far more efficiently.
“If we agree on the valuation,” Sulzhyk told the team, “you’ll have the money in your account within the week. We’ll shake hands today, and deal with the paperwork later.”
According to Sulzhyk, Western funds in Ukraine exist within a spectrum of risk tolerance, ranging from “crazy” risk tolerant to risk neutral. The most successful founders pitching to these Western investors typically are those who already have a track record. They not only know how to build a pitch deck and how to work with investors; they have built startups before.
But, as Sulzhyk told Resilience Media in an interview this month in Kyiv, in defence tech in Ukraine, there’s a “huge layer” underneath that one, a strata of first-time founders who might want to work with investors and could benefit from the contact beyond funding, but they don’t know how.
The experience that these founders come to the process with is limited, to say the least. They may not know what a minority investor is. They may not even speak English, which makes working with international partners a challenge.
Sulzhyk sees his role as making investors and the innovators readable to each other.
“I’m getting to those guys through word of mouth,” he said. They’re really excited, he adds. “They say, ‘Roman from Resist is very easy — you can talk to him, he can help you get to the next stage.’ That’s where we’re able to penetrate, where maybe others can’t.”
Our Strategic Partner, European Defense Tech Hub is awash with hackathons this year. Will we see you there?
EDTH Kyiv (Flagship)
Kyiv, Ukraine | April 27 – May 3, 2026 As a flagship event, EDTH Kyiv offers a unique opportunity to build alongside one of the world’s most battle-tested defence tech ecosystems. Participants will work on urgent, real-world problems, with direct relevance to modern conflict and resilience.
EDTH Karlskrona
Karlskrona, Sweden | May 7–10, 2026 Hosted in Sweden’s historic naval hub, EDTH Karlskrona focuses on maritime, defence, and security technologies. Teams will explore innovative approaches to naval and coastal defence challenges in a collaborative hackathon setting.
EDTH Prague
Prague, Czechia | May 15–17, 2026 EDTH Prague brings together Central Europe’s top builders and defence innovators for a weekend of intense collaboration. The hackathon emphasises practical solutions and cross-border cooperation in emerging defence technologies.
EDTH Vilnius
Vilnius, Lithuania | May 29–31, 2026 EDTH Vilnius convenes talent from across the Baltics and beyond to develop cutting-edge defence and resilience solutions. With strong regional expertise and a growing tech ecosystem, the event is a key node in Europe’s defence innovation network.
Kyiv Defense Tech Week
From April 27–May 3, Kyiv Defense Tech Week brings together investors, founders, engineers, and military leaders to accelerate battle-tested technologies into real-world impact. Resilience Media is proud to be a media partner. Co-hosted by Invest in Bravery and European Defense Tech Hub, the week features:
- University Defense Tech Forum | April 28–29 Connecting Ukrainian and European academia working on defense and dual-use technologies. Register.
- Invest in Bravery | April 30 A high-level summit giving international investors and strategic partners direct access to vetted Ukrainian defense tech startups. Register.
Ukraine isn’t just adapting to the future of security — it’s building it. Learn more and get involved.
