Occam, a UK-based defence tech startup developing AI autonomous drones being tested with the Ukrainian military, has raised a £2.6m investment.
Founded in 2025, Occam is one of many tech firms founded to meet the defence needs of modern geopolitcal conflicts, with the war in Ukraine presenting one of the largest deployment operations for military drones.
Research published in Kyiv Dialogue found that drones accounted for 96% of all aerial weapons deployed in 2024.
According to Occam, most deployments still rely on continuous human control, while its machines can operate through autonomous software.
“Ukraine is not a pilot or test market. It’s the most demanding operating environment for autonomous systems anywhere in the world right now,” said Gui Wainwright, co-founder and chief executive of Occam.
“Every assumption is tested under pressure: latency, reliability, operator load, decision-making. What we build at Occam is shaped by that reality and then honed in combat conditions. Fundamentally, if a system cannot perform at the zero-line, we cannot trust troops or security to it, and it has no place in modern defence.”
The company has raised the pre-seed funding from Presto Tech Horizons alongside Antler, the US-based Freedom Fund and Danish investor TYR.vc.
“Occam impressed us with their ability to turn ambition into operational reality at an incredible pace,” explains Matej Luhovy, a partner at Presto Tech Horizons.
“They deploy, learn, and iterate under conditions dictated by the front line. Gui has an exceptional ability to rally people around a clear mission, and the team executes on it with urgency and discipline. Combined with a software-only autonomy stack that works without GPS or external connectivity, this is a solution that is not just novel, but fundamentally different.”
Occam has participated in field evaluations through Ukraine’s national defence platform Brave1, which is now pursuing further collaboration with the startup.
“We often say that founders and teams need to learn quickly, adapt under pressure, thrive in ambiguity, and stay focused on outcomes – but we aren’t usually imagining environments this extreme,” said Hannah Leach, a partner at Antler.
“Occam is a team honed to excel under exceedingly challenging conditions, and to respond daily to real-world constraints.”
