Eight Companies Secure Brave1 Funding for Ballistic and Air Defense Missile Development

Eight of the 18 companies that applied to the competition received grant funding from Brave1 to develop tactical ballistic missiles and low-cost surface-to-air missiles.

Brave1 CEO Andrii Hrytseniuk shared this during Militarnyi’s “To Arms!” broadcast.

In November 2025, it was reported that 18 Ukrainian developers working on tactical ballistic missiles and affordable air defense missile systems had submitted their projects to Brave1’s grant competitions.

Overall, all 18 companies submitted proposals related to the development of surface-to-air missile systems to counter UAVs. Four of them also applied for funding for their tactical ballistic missile projects.

“How does it work? First, to determine the competition winners, a military commission reviews all applications, and teams pitch their projects. There is a second stage involving independent experts, who also conduct their evaluations. This creates several layers of decision-making. After that, Brave1’s supervisory board makes the final decision by analyzing the evaluation results and the projects themselves, and the winners are then selected. The winners subsequently receive funding,” Andrii Hrytseniuk noted.

According to the Brave1 CEO, the funding is typically provided in tranches and is released incrementally as the developer reaches specific development milestones.

In addition to financial support, Brave1 also conducts technical reviews of the projects and, if necessary, can connect a company with suppliers of specialized components or with research institutions that have the required laboratory equipment.

Meanwhile, Andrii Hrytseniuk declined to comment on whether the developments have reached a stage at which they can already be used on the battlefield. According to him, “the progress is even better than we expected.”

It is worth noting that this is not Brave1’s first “missile-related” grant. In February 2025, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s then Minister of Digital Transformation, reported that 19 Ukrainian companies had joined Brave1’s grant program focused on developing missile systems.

At that time, in addition to ballistic and surface-to-air missiles, the competition also included the development of cruise missiles and small missiles for drones.