On 12 November 2026, UFORCE, a defence technology company founded in Ukraine and headquartered in London, said it had raised a $700 million Series A at a $6 billion valuation, co-led by Valor Equity Partners and the UK National Wealth Fund. The pairing of a US growth investor with a UK state-backed institution on the same round is the unusual detail here: the National Wealth Fund said its contribution is £113 million ($150 million) in equity, making a sovereign balance sheet a direct co-lead alongside private capital in a company building autonomous uncrewed platforms and the software that operates them. The company, which also runs hubs in Kyiv and Washington, DC, described the $6 billion figure as post-money, according to an interview published by Tectonic.
Who put in the money
Valor Equity Partners and the UK National Wealth Fund co-led. The company said the U.S.–Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund (URIF) also participated, along with new investors including Menlo Ventures, Xantium and Hiro Capital. Existing backers Shield Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Lakestar and Squadra increased their stakes.
The step up in price is steep. CNBC reported a $50 million round at around a $1 billion valuation in March; set against the company’s new $6 billion figure, that is a sixfold move in the two reported numbers since March. CNBC, citing the company, also said bookings have more than doubled over the past year.
What UFORCE builds
The portfolio spans sea, land and air, wrapped in AI software and command-and-control. MAGURA uncrewed surface vessels and NEMESIS strike drones are the best known lines, with LIUT ground robotic platforms and PREDATOR turret and counter-drone systems alongside them. The company said its systems have been used in combat in Ukraine, that NEMESIS drones have completed more than 300,000 combat flights, and that MAGURA vessels have contributed to the destruction of more than a dozen Russian warships in the Black Sea. Those claims come from the company and were repeated by CNBC.
The stated objective, in the company’s words, is to make defence “a hundred times cheaper than offensive operations” — an economics argument as much as an engineering one.
Where the money goes
The company said the funding supports continuous manufacturing in Ukraine and allied nations, and expanding production capacity across the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The National Wealth Fund said its equity will support growth in advanced manufacturing, engineering and autonomous systems, bringing high-skilled jobs to sites across the UK, and that UFORCE will significantly expand its UK footprint, creating hundreds of high-skilled jobs. The National Wealth Fund also said more than 70% of the content of each UK-built MV series boat will come from British suppliers.
What the raise means for vendors
That 70% British content figure is the line worth reading twice. The National Wealth Fund named hulls, engines, electronics and fit-out as the content sourced in the UK, which points to a specialised domestic supply chain being assembled around boatbuilding and its immediate tiers — plus the test, certification and secure-facilities work that tends to follow defence manufacturing onto new sites. Suppliers positioning for that work should expect procurement to be organised around multiple UK locations rather than a single plant, given the National Wealth Fund’s reference to sites across the UK.
Software and services vendors have a parallel opening. Command-and-control, autonomy tooling, data infrastructure, secure comms and manufacturing execution systems all scale with production capacity, and the company’s plan covers the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East as well as Ukraine. For Growth List readers tracking where defence budgets meet venture capital, UFORCE joins a cohort of fast-scaling London startups hiring across engineering and operations, and sits alongside other funded drone startups. More funded companies are listed in the UK startups directory and the Series A startups directory.
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Sources: UFORCE, 12 November 2026; UK National Wealth Fund; CNBC; Tectonic; Mishcon de Reya. Featured image: US Navy unmanned surface vessel Sea Hunter, a stand-in, not a UFORCE vessel, U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Kyle Carlstrom, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.