The London-based startup passed field evaluation through Ukraine’s Brave1 platform, proving its software-only autonomy can operate under live fire without GPS or external connectivity. Now it’s raising capital to scale across the front line — and into NATO supply chains.
Most autonomous drone companies talk about Ukraine. Occam Industries just got endorsed by it. The London-based defence tech startup has completed field assessment through Brave1 — Ukraine’s national defence platform — and has been cleared as fit for integration testing with Ukrainian manufacturers.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. Ukraine is not running lab trials or controlled demonstrations. It is the most operationally demanding testing ground for autonomous systems on the planet, and passing evaluation there is an implicit statement that the technology works under conditions where failure has consequences.
On the back of that validation, Occam has closed a €3 million pre-seed round led by Presto Tech Horizons, a resilience-focused VC fund backed by defence-industrial partner CSG (Czechoslovak Group). The round includes participation from Antler, US-based Freedom Fund, Copenhagen-based dual-use investor TYR.vc, and a group of defence and security industry angels. The capital will be used to accelerate adoption across Ukraine’s front line and to develop additional autonomous capabilities, while in parallel, the company is beginning paid projects with European defence primes, with deployments expected this year.
Why Ukraine’s Endorsement Is Different
The numbers tell the story. In 2025, Ukraine recorded approximately 54,700 drone attacks, up from around 11,000 in 2024. Drones now account for roughly 96% of all aerial weapons deployed in the conflict, compared to about 30% at the start of the air war in 2022. That is not a gradual shift — it is a wholesale transformation of modern kinetic operations. And it has created a scalability problem that human pilots cannot solve.
Most low-cost drone deployments still require continuous human control. That means every platform needs an operator, every mission creates cognitive load, and every additional drone adds training time and operational complexity. Occam’s approach is to remove that bottleneck with software-only autonomy — no hardware modifications, no airframe changes, just an autonomous layer that runs on existing mass-manufactured platforms. The result is drones that can be launched as fast as they leave production lines, operate independently from external communication or GPS, and remain immune to signal interference and jamming.
“Ukraine is not a pilot or test market. It’s the most demanding operating environment for autonomous systems anywhere in the world right now,” says Gui Wainwright, co-founder and CEO of Occam. “Every assumption is tested under pressure: latency, reliability, operator load, decision-making. What we build at Occam is shaped by that reality and then honed in combat conditions. Fundamentally, if a system cannot perform at the zero-line, we cannot trust troops or security to it, and it has no place in modern defence.”
Gui Wainwright, Occam CEO & Emilie Clarke, Occam Chief of Staff
The field tests, conducted in late January via the TEST in Ukraine platform, were observed by Ukrainian government officials and original equipment manufacturers. Having seen the technology perform under live conditions, Brave1 is now pursuing collaboration between Occam and select Ukrainian manufacturers to integrate the autonomy stack into Ukrainian unmanned systems — one of the first examples of Western AI technology being embedded into Ukraine’s domestic drone production at scale.
How Software-Only Autonomy Changes the Economics
The technical architecture matters because it determines what can scale and what cannot. Occam’s autonomy is delivered entirely in software, enabling it to be integrated into existing drone platforms without altering airframes, supply chains, or OEM ownership. By using computer vision for perception, tracking, and guidance, the system reduces the need for continuous manual control and lowers the skill threshold for operators. The autonomy is bounded and functional — it acts as a force multiplier while ensuring responsibility remains with the chain of command.
Brave1 Field Tests
That design philosophy reflects the team’s background. Occam brings together expertise from commercial robotics, logistics, and defence sectors where reliability and trust are not optional. The company’s approach prioritises systems that can be trusted under pressure, which is why field validation in Ukraine has been central to its development roadmap from the outset.
“Occam impressed us with their ability to turn ambition into operational reality at an incredible pace,” says Matej Luhovy, partner at Presto Tech Horizons. “They deploy, learn, and iterate under conditions dictated by the front line. Gui has an exceptional ability to rally people around a clear mission, and the team executes on it with urgency and discipline. Combined with a software-only autonomy stack that works without GPS or external connectivity, this is a solution that is not just novel, but fundamentally different.”
From Ukraine to NATO Supply Chains
The next stage for Occam involves a proof-of-concept based on a Ukrainian unmanned platform, adapted to complex weather and combat conditions. Successful trials will pave the way for scaling the solution and deploying it with the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In parallel, Occam has already established strategic partnerships with European defence primes looking to reinforce NATO capabilities. The company expects paid deployments with European customers this year.
“The future of defence technologies is being shaped and tested in Ukraine today,” says Andrii Hrytseniuk, CEO at Brave1. “Brave1 has created a platform where international partners can trial their solutions, exchange expertise, and work with us to address emerging security challenges. AI is one of our key priorities, as it is fundamentally transforming the nature of combat operations. We highly value the fact that British technology companies like Occam are working directly with Ukraine to respond to real frontline needs — an experience that strengthens not only Ukraine, but Europe as a whole.”
Hannah Leach, partner at Antler, framed the investment in terms of what the firm typically looks for — and how Occam exceeds it: “We often say that founders and teams need to learn quickly, adapt under pressure, thrive in ambiguity, and stay focused on outcomes — but we aren’t usually imagining environments this extreme. Occam is a team honed to excel under exceedingly challenging conditions, and to respond daily to real-world constraints.”
Sir Alex Younger, former Director General of MI6 and advisor to Occam, put it more bluntly: “This war will not be won by the weight of numbers but by the power of creativity and innovation. Trusting good people to come up with good ideas, and creating good systems to apply them. Occam is a great example. It will confer asymmetric advantage in a fight that we simply must win.”
For a pre-seed defence tech company, having that kind of institutional backing — combined with operational proof from the most demanding testing environment in the world — is not just validation. It is a structural advantage that most competitors will struggle to replicate.
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