Last June marked the launch of the first DefTech Forges. Darkstar, a venture capital firm, together with Civitta, one of the largest consultancy company in Eastern Europe,was mobilised to deliver the Estonian Forges, while Starburst, a consulting,  investment and accelerator company, hosted the initiative in France. Both teams shared a common goal: to prove that European defence innovation moves faster when the right people operate together.

Deploying in-house knowledge to push European defence forward

For years, the European defence ecosystem has operated within a closed perimeter. While it is now expanding rapidly, it remains fragmented. Too many start-ups build prototypes in isolation, far from the military end-users who will ultimately rely on them on the battlefield. The DefTech Forges were designed specifically to close this gap by bringing together promising defence companies and field experts.

Darkstar brought battle-tested field experience to the table. Drawing on its track record running bootcamps in Ukraine, Darkstar engaged an extensive network of Ukrainian end-users and active military personnel who understand frontline reality.

At the same time, Starburst brings extensive institutional experience. Through its significant involvement in shaping and delivering acceleration programmes for EUDIS, the European Space Agency, NATO DIANA, and its own Starburst Accelerator, the firm brought proven methodologies and established frameworks to the mission. Starburst worked closely with the French Ministry of Defence’s innovation agency and key defence players, whose experts reinforced the forge with crucial industrial guidance.

By combining Darkstar’s battlefield access with Starburst’s institutional reach, the consortium established a dual-engine framework capable of testing teams from all angles.

A selection process built to find mission-ready teams

Bringing two distinct operational styles together required a shared, rigorous evaluation system. Every application faced at least six different evaluators, each assessing a different criterion.

Darkstar evaluated the technology on three pillars: in-house expertise, efficient tools and Ukrainian military feedback. With an internal database of more than 1,000 start-ups and close collaboration with Ukrainian end-users, it was well placed to swiftly verify the feasibility of a proposed technical solution. 

Mentors and Ukrainian end-users debrief

One of the key advantages of the DefTech Forges is to have an opportunity to benefit from sharp expert feedback from mentors with military and technical backgrounds identifying technical gaps and highlighting areas where teams performed well. 

On the testing ground in France, Starburst, together with members of the French and Ukrainian armed forces, developed testing scenarios for urban, road and forest terrains, to ensure that each military unit could be matched with the right start-up and the right expert.

The terrain mattered too: the same product behaves differently in open space and in a forest and it proves that real testing is very different from a demonstration in a closed lab environment. Some teams that claimed a much higher level of maturity saw their technology fail in the field.

Above all, Ukrainian end-users brought what no one else could: the reality of a battlefield. For both bootcamps, this input was essential to building relevant scenarios. 

Collaborations built to last

The DefTech Forges end, but the mission does not. Winners move on to two months of hands-on mentorship, with a dedicated mentor and on-demand experts. These range from a Ukrainian mentor with combat experience to specialists in fields such as computer vision.

Both Darkstar and Starburst maintain ongoing relationships with participating start-up companies long after the bootcamps conclude. All local organisers, Darkstar, Civitta and Starburst keep communication open through shared digital workspaces and facilitates ongoing access to key European defence events, connecting start-ups with new investors, primes, and end-users.

Militaries open the gates to innovation

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect was the response from the military. In France, securing access to an official military site required months of advance authorisation and the postponement of a scheduled military exercise. Earning the trust of the site’s military leadership and observing their enthusiastic response during the bootcamps was a big win.

In Estonia, the defence forces had already travelled with Darkstar to Ukraine to see innovation first-hand. Now they want to take part in all upcoming forges. 

It became clear that stakeholders who had long been reluctant to engage with new players are now more open to collaboration, market growth and a good dose of healthy competition.

When Europe moves at frontline speed

One key takeaway stood out in both countries: innovation and collaboration can move impressively fast. In Estonia, three companies built integrations on the spot within 24 hours, without a lab. In France, start-ups that only covered a part of the value chain joined forces with others on the testing field drawing on the direct feedback of Ukrainian militaries.

It shows that Europe can move fast when the right people are brought together. Unexpected collaborations, combined with the expertise of established companies, can help advance European defence innovation.

This solution directly addresses the need for precision engagement systems in the terminal phase. Its AI-enabled target recognition and C2 architecture enable the detection, tracking, and engagement of threats through the critical terminal stage of an engagement.

The system allows forces to counter cheap enemy threats and drone swarms while preserving a favourable cost-effectiveness rate.

What are the DefTech Forges?

The BraveTechEU DefTech Forges are multi-day defence innovation events hosted on military sites across Europe, designed to accelerate the development of deployable solutions to real operational challenges. Each boot camp focuses on mission-driven challenges aligned with current operational priorities, including those emerging from the Ukrainian battlefield context