Resist.UA targets €50M for defence scaleups
Resist.UA has launched an Estonia-based fund targeting up to €50M for Ukrainian and European defence and dual-use companies moving beyond the seed stage.
Ukraine has become one of the world’s fastest environments for testing defence technology, but battlefield validation does not automatically create a scalable company.
What happened
Resist.UA launched Resist 2.0, an Estonia-based investment fund targeting up to €50M for Ukrainian and European defence and dual-use companies. The figure is a fundraising target rather than a completed final close.
The new vehicle follows an earlier Resist.UA fund focused on pre-seed and seed-stage Ukrainian startups. Resist 2.0 is intended to support companies as they expand manufacturing, enter international markets and move from early deployments into larger commercial and government contracts.
Why it matters
Many Ukrainian defence startups have developed products under unusually urgent conditions. That can produce rapid feedback and practical innovation, but scaling introduces a different set of challenges: reliable supply chains, quality control, export rules, procurement processes and long-term financing.
A dedicated European structure could help companies bridge the gap between proven early use and repeatable production.
The bigger picture
European defence investing is becoming more specialised. Early-stage funds, growth vehicles, corporate investors and government procurement programmes are beginning to form a fuller capital stack.
The test for Resist.UA will be whether it can translate Ukraine’s speed of innovation into durable businesses that sell across allied markets without losing the close customer feedback that made them useful in the first place.