IT Arena Startup Competition 2025 Investment Fund Reaches $12.5M — A Record High

The Startup Competition 2025 investment fund now stands at $12,500,000. It is the largest and most prestigious startup competition in Ukraine, traditionally held as part of the IT Arena tech event. Each year, the winners receive substantial cash prizes to further develop their startups.

Participation in the Startup Competition offers a unique opportunity to capture the attention of key players in the global market: venture capital firms, business angels, investors, and entrepreneurs from around the world. In 2024, the competition participants raised a total of more than $2,000,000 in investments.

For instance, Double Tap Investments announced a strategic investment in the Hard Cat Drones startup after the team showcased their solutions at IT Arena 2024.

The company specializes in developing innovative unmanned systems for river and maritime operations. In particular, the team presented a kamikaze drone that can also be used for seabed scanning, enemy mine detection, navigation support for Ukrainian vessels, and reconnaissance. The prototype has already been tested at the request of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Our cooperation with Hard Cat Drones became the result of our participation in IT Arena 2024, where we had the opportunity to get to know the team and their products more closely. We invest in solutions that create real impact and are confident that Hard Cat Drones’ innovations will help save lives and strengthen Ukraine’s security”, said Oles Khudoba, Co-Founder of Double Tap Investments.

According to the co-founders of the Finnish-Ukrainian investment company Double Tap Investments, events like Startup Competition open new opportunities for development teams planning to scale and investors seeking promising projects.

Following the partnership with Double Tap Investments, the developers of Hard Cat Drones are working on new models to further expand capabilities in the defense and security sectors.

“Hard Cat Drones is a strong example of combining technological flexibility with practical application. It’s quite a niche story, but very relevant both for Ukraine and for Finland. We are confident that the team is capable of scaling its product and making a meaningful contribution to the country’s defense forces”, added СEO and Co-Founder of Double Tap Investments Jan-Erik Saarinen.

This year, the list of investors includes well-known investment companies, venture capital funds, and clubs. Among them are: 1991 VC, United Angels Network, Vesna Capital, Presto Tech Horizons, Tilia Impact Ventures, Depo Ventures, Radix VC, PurposeTech VC, Rockaway Ventures, Double Tap Investments, MITS Capital, Green Flag Ventures, NextFrontier Fund, and Wolver Ventures.

In particular, $5,000,000 was raised thanks to Presto Tech Horizons. The fund actively invests in deeptech, defense, and resilience tech across NATO and allied countries. These are companies developing cutting-edge technologies, such as AI-driven battlefield navigation, acoustic detection systems, and next-gen cybersecurity solutions.

“We focus on post-product startups, from pre-seed to Series A, and assess founders on a five-axis scorecard: domain insight, technological moat, speed to first contract, capital leverage, and a global compliance mindset. Even before the conflict, our second fund had invested in seven startups with Ukrainian founders or R&D ties. They are among the most capable and driven entrepreneurs in the world, building globally-minded companies from day one,” comments Tisho Jenkut, recently appointed Partner at Presto Tech Horizons.

Meanwhile, this year’s grant prize fund for the competition amounts to $60,000. This sum will be divided among the main winners of the contest. For the third time, startups will be able to present their innovative products in two categories — general and a special category for defense tech startups and cybersecurity projects. Half of the fund was raised with the support of the Ukrainian Startup Fund (USF), while the other half was invested by the defense cluster Brave1.

This year, the organizers of the Startup Competition received a record 202 applications — the highest number in the contest’s history. In addition to Ukrainian teams, foreign startups will also compete for the prize, submitting 12 applications. A record 52 applications came from developers of defense tech products. Overall, participants will showcase their technological developments in areas such as health tech, edutech, and food tech, as well as AI-based solutions and products in defense and cybersecurity.

The grand finale of the Startup Competition will traditionally take place on the second day of IT Arena, September 27. The final pitches from the contestants will be presented on the main stage of the tech conference.

It’s worth noting that this year, IT Arena is returning to the Arena Lviv stadium. The event will run from September 26 to 28 and bring together over 6,000 participants from 30 countries.

Co-organizers of the IT Arena Startup Competition 2025 are IT Arena, Brave1, and USF.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them.