Czech venture capital firm DEPO Ventures invested an undisclosed amount in Zvook, a Ukrainian defense startup developing a hardware and software system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and passive acoustic sensors to detect aerial targets.
DEPO Ventures Co-founder and Managing Partner Petr Šíma revealed the deal to Defender Media on Monday, Oct. 12. The investment was made through the firm’s new Ukraine Fund, which was announced separately on Oct. 2. The deal marks the first investment from the new fund.
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The fund, which also backs startups from Moldova and Georgia, was established by National Development Investments, a subsidiary of the Czech National Development Bank together with the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade. Its stated objective is to attract innovative companies from the region while creating skilled employment and strengthening the Czech innovation ecosystem.
Amid the ongoing war, defense tech has emerged as the country’s fastest-growing tech sector, attracting more than $129 million in investments, according to AVentures Capital’s DealBook of Ukraine.
Zvook is conducting research and development on hydrophones for passive underwater acoustic monitoring. The company cites maritime security, the monitoring of shipping and ports, and the protection of critical underwater infrastructure as potential applications for the technology, according to the company’s post on LinkedIn.
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The fund plans to allocate $4.25 million to startups from Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, offering tickets of up to $559,000 per company. The total fund volume could increase to $6.5 million if conditions around private capital and deployed investment are met, as per The Recursive.
DEPO Ventures has previously invested in several companies with Ukrainian founders, including $1.3 million in 2023 for Masthead Data, a real-time platform for analyzing and monitoring errors in large datasets, and $1.1 million in 2024 for Talsec, a startup developing mobile app security solutions.
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