Sine Engineering
Drone communications and navigation infrastructure, battle-tested. Now in a Series A process with large investors in active diligence.
We are not claiming an empty field
The positionFunds of every size are active in Ukrainian dual-use now, most of them arriving once the category had a name. The gap is not who got here first, but who understands what they are looking at. It is a call we were making before the category existed.
What we back
Focus & structureStage
Pre-seed and seed, with selective early Series A follow-on via reserves. That is the round the past four years’ companies reach as angel checks stop carrying them.
Geography
Ukraine-first, with roughly three-quarters of capital. The remainder is open to allied markets, whose defense budgets are now opening to suppliers based outside their own borders.
Sectors
Underlying technology — components, sensing, compute, software — dual-use by nature: built for defense-grade conditions, transferable to adjacent commercial markets.
Check size
$250K initial; up to $500K for later-stage opportunities within the portfolio, plus reserves for follow-on.
Excludes
Weapons and munitions, drones and other finished defense end-products, and anything without a credible path to customers beyond the Ukrainian market — whether through civilian dual-use applications or export to allied defense markets.
Target size$10–15M
Target deals15–20 companies
Reserve ratio~40% of fund
Investment period2–3 years (target)
VehicleAngelList fund
Portfolio
Three companies · September 2026DoD Solution
Operating as AURA. Vertically integrated autonomy stack — sensing, compute, software — for unmanned aerial, ground, and maritime systems.
PAI Defence
Passive RF sensing and signal intelligence for detecting and locating radio-emitting objects, with commercial applications beyond defense.
The name
Wild Field — the historical Ukrainian frontier: contested, ungoverned territory where survival depended on adaptability, not institutional backing. That is the environment our portfolio companies build in today.
People
Partners & advisors
Alex Borshch
Advisor
Defence-tech advisory, technical due diligence. Founder of Dark River; serial founder, RF/SDR tinkerer.
LinkedIn
Oleg Salamaha
Advisor
AI strategy, defence-tech advisory. Chief AI Officer at Dark River; founder of Serpstat.
LinkedIn
Andriy Chulyk
Advisor
Co-founder and CEO of Sine Engineering. 20+ years in telecom, hardware and IoT; ex-co-founder of Movably.
LinkedIn
Andriy Zvirko
Advisor
Chief Strategy Officer at Sine Engineering. Built and brought to market ecosystems scaled to millions of users (Fixly.pl, OLX.ua).
LinkedIn
Yurii Stasinchuk
Advisor
Co-founder and CEO of FoxFour. DARPA competition winner; publications at ICRA and in Robotics and Autonomous Systems.
LinkedInWhat we bring
Beyond the checkEverything below runs through the same technical bench: engineers and operators who assess dual-use hardware and software against real battlefield conditions. That is their day job. The list is short, and it is the whole list — there is no platform team behind it.
Technical review
They look at the product itself before we invest: what it does, how it is built, whether it holds up where it is meant to be used.
End-customer validation
Introductions to the people who operate this class of technology in the field, so product decisions are tested in use.
Access that does not end at the check
The same people stay reachable afterwards, for specific problems as they come up.
Questions
Before you writeDo you lead rounds?
No. We write $250K, up to $500K at later stages, alongside a lead.
Do you follow on?
Yes. About 40% of the fund is held in reserve for it. The point of being early is to still be there when the rounds get larger and outside capital arrives.
Do you take a board seat?
No.
Do I need a warm introduction?
No. Cold email is read.
How long does it take?
A week to the first reply. After that it depends on the technical review. We do not sit on decisions.
We build a finished product — a drone. Are you the wrong fund?
Yes. We back what goes into the platform, not the platform itself. The full line is under What we back.
We are not in Ukraine. Should we still write?
A quarter of the fund is open to allied markets, provided the technology is the same class.
What should the first email say?
What the technology is, who uses it, and what stage you are raising at. If there is hardware, something of it working beats a slide describing it.