Ukrainian Robotics Firm Tencore Raises $3.74M, Sets Legal Precedent for U.S. Defense Investment

KYIV, Ukraine — 11 July 2025

Ukrainian ground robotics company Tencore has raised $3.74 million from MITS Capital, marking a historic first: a U.S. venture fund investing directly into a Ukrainian defense startup via the Diia.City legal framework.

Announced during the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025) in Rome, the deal represents the largest publicly disclosed investment in Ukraine’s ground robotics sector to date. It also sets a vital precedent for future foreign investment in Ukraine’s wartime innovation economy.

“MITS Capital is proud to sign the first Diia.City contract between a U.S. investor and a Ukrainian DefenseTech company,” said Perry Boyle, CEO and founding partner of MITS Capital. “Our goal is to get Russia out of Ukraine and Ukraine into NATO’s defense supply chain.”

Founded in 2024 by a team of engineers and legal experts, Tencore has rapidly grown from a scrappy startup into a 215-person manufacturer producing battlefield-tested unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). Its flagship TerMIT platform, codified to NATO standards, is already in service with more than 20 brigades. To date, the company has built over 800 units. With the new capital, it aims to manufacture 2,000 by year’s end.

Beyond the financial injection, the transaction’s legal structure may have longer-term implications. Using Article 29 of Ukraine’s “Diia.City Law,” MITS Capital executed a convertible loan agreement—long standard in global venture capital—directly into Tencore’s Ukrainian legal entity (TOV, the local equivalent of an LLC). The deal avoids the common workaround of routing funds through offshore structures.

“This agreement creates a clear legal path for international investors to deploy capital directly into Ukrainian entities without workarounds,” said Denys Gurak, CIO and founding partner at MITS Capital. “This mechanism makes investing in a Ukrainian TOV as secure as investing in a Delaware C-Corp or an Estonian e-Residency company.”

Gurak also noted that the deal was made possible with support from Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and Diia.City United, a business association that guides startups through the Diia.City registration and compliance process.

Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov celebrated the deal as a validation of Ukraine’s tech-focused legal reforms:

“This is exactly why we built Diia.City — to ensure Ukrainian startups can attract investment right here in Ukraine, not through foreign jurisdictions,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “Ukrainian defense startups bring unique expertise and battlefield-tested technologies.”

Founded in early 2024 by Maksym Vasylchenko, Roman Tkachenko, Mykhailo Khomyakov, and Volodymyr Bystrushkin, Tencore began with a modest ₴1 million in founders’ capital. Within 17 months, the company scaled to over 200 employees and secured its first state contract.

The TerMIT is a multi-role platform capable of logistics transport, medical evacuation, demining, engineering support, and even firepower delivery. Costs vary between $12,000 and $50,000 per unit, depending on configuration. Approximately 95% of components are sourced domestically.

According to Oleksandr Yabchanka, a frontline commander with the "Honor" company of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, the TerMIT “continued its mission even after an FPV drone strike and hitting an anti-personnel mine,” as reported by Forbes Ukraine. While he noted some technical flaws, such as track detachment under stress, he credited the company for maintaining close feedback loops with end users.

The company’s revenues hit ₴66 million in 2024, and by Q1 2025, it had already reached ₴64 million, according to YouControl.

The funding from MITS will allow Tencore to expand its R&D division by hiring 20 additional engineers and launching a dedicated development facility. CEO Vasylchenko said the company plans to modernize the TerMIT to meet both EU and U.S. technical requirements, and to debut a combat variant capable of replacing human crews in frontline missions.

The company is also moving toward dual-use products, with plans to develop remotely controlled excavators and tractors for demining Ukraine’s vast mine-contaminated agricultural lands — an estimated 144,000 square kilometers requiring $30 billion in remediation.

Tencore is already in talks with foreign companies about establishing joint production ventures in Ukraine.

“Rearming Europe should happen through Ukrainian manufacturing,” said Gurak. “Ukraine offers a low-cost, high-competence production base that is already battle-tested.”

For MITS Capital, Tencore represents the 11th investment in a growing portfolio that includes both early-stage and growth-stage Ukrainian defense startups. The firm, headquartered in Kyiv and New York, launched in 2024 with a $50 million target. It operates an accelerator, a venture fund, and an investment banking unit to bridge Ukrainian innovation with Western capital and procurement systems.