Dear Investors of D3,
The greatest advantage of being based in Ukraine is direct access to the frontline — and the immense flow of real-time information we receive during visits to command centers. This is a privilege we also extend to our portfolio companies that dare to defend democracy.
This month, we accompanied Neros to the unmanned systems lab of Khartia, one of the highest-performing brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, now elevated to an Army Corps with five brigades. Khartia has already received 500 Archer drones and is providing invaluable frontline feedback to the Neros team. During our visit, we observed a live operation targeting a small enemy hub inside their territory. The mission lasted roughly 15 minutes, executed successfully despite some communication issues. It was interesting to see that the pilots chose not to activate the autonomous navigation system until the “last mile,” preferring full manual control until final targeting.
In conversations, it was clear that pilots remain reluctant to relinquish control — even as the availability of trained operators becomes a critical bottleneck. According to the Victory Drones training center, Ukraine lost more drone pilots last month than in the entire previous year. At this pace, replenishment will not keep up and we will run out of pilots by end of the year. There is an urgent need for greater autonomy to remove humans from the loop.
On a personal level, the visit was striking. For the soldiers, war has become such a routine. Watching how seamlessly enemy assets — potentially including soldiers — were neutralized felt surreal to me. Yet, in that moment, I celebrated the mission’s success as much as the operators who carried it out.
Neros visit to Khartia (confidential, no sharing)
Total = 801 (+28)
The YC demo day is approaching and they have multiple offers for additional investment at higher valuations already. We participated in two of these rounds with follow-on investments of $50K at the $20M valuation and $250K at the $30M valuation. While our check sizes were small, this was primarily a function of managing dilution constraints rather than lack of conviction. We were the very first investors in Albacore!
Albacore follow-on investment case:
Follow on Investment Albacore.pdf
Albacore water test in the US