Tech Horizons Leads EUR 3M Investment Into UK’s Occam Industries’ Brave1-Endorsed Drone Autonomy

• Occam Industries develops autonomous drone AI operating independently from GPS and other communications
• Brave1 testing validates Occam’s technology under demanding real-world battlefield conditions in Ukraine
• Prague-based Tech Horizons led the startup’s EUR 3M Pre-Seed round supporting defense autonomy expansion
• The company targets to scale AI-powered battlefield systems alongside European defense partnerships and deployments

This February, the proactive Czech defense-tech and dual-use VC fund Tech Horizons (formerly Presto Tech Horizons; invested in BlueQubit, among others) became the lead investor in Occam Industries’ GBP 2.6M / EUR 3M Pre-Seed round. The UK-based startup develops an AI for autonomous drone operations. Other participants of the round include Antler, Freedom Fund, and TYR.vc.

Mission-Driven Origins

Occam Industries was started by Gui Wainwright (CEO) and Daniil Bash (COO). Mr Wainwright, in particular, can boast about a background spanning 20 years in AI and robotics including one of the largest global robotics programs at Ocado, as well as supporting NATO with ML projects early in his career in conflict areas.

‘After we offered to help Ukrainian soldiers, the brigades asked us to stay. Occam did not start as a company, a solution or a pitch. It was just a handful of people who wanted to help. From there, we built, alongside Ukraine, a solution to a major problem,’ the CEO recollects.

As it is easy to guess, the name refers to Occam’s Razor: the well-known problem solving principle stating that the simplest solution is usually correct.

‘We face an unrelenting enemy in Russia that continues to advance by throwing men. Autonomy offers a simple solution to that, turning the war from one where we meet men with men, to one where we invest money and meet men with robotics. Russian strength in numbers will meet—and get outlasted by—European manufacturing and ingenuity,’ Mr Wainwright tells ITKeyMedia.

GPS-Denied Warfare and the Rise of Software-Only Autonomy

Essentially, Occam Industries develops software-only autonomy systems for drones and UAVs that enable autonomous operation without relying on GPS, external communications, or major hardware modifications. Its flagship product Occam-X uses computer vision for perception, tracking, and guidance, allowing existing mass-produced drone platforms to operate with reduced human control and lower operator training requirements. The company focuses on enhancing battlefield scalability and resilience by integrating advanced AI capabilities into existing unmanned systems for defense applications.

‘Our story is one of being stronger together. Occam provides an AI that can pilot anything. We will never make hardware. This means that we need OEM partners to provide our AI a physical body. We need military planners to give our AI a mission. We need drone pilots to take us to that mission area of operation and release us. Occam is part of a team. Our key milestones revolve around people joining that team, be they investors, brigades, pilots, or others. Together we win,’ Mr Wainwright comments.

‘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,” Occam is a team honed to excel under exceedingly challenging conditions, and to respond daily to real-world constraints,’ Antler’s partner Hannah Leach adds.

According to Tech Horizons’ partner Matej Luhový, his team is particularly impressed with Occam Industries’ ability to turn ambition into operational reality at an incredible pace.

‘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 his 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,’ the investor states.

Without Reinventing Hardware

Occam Industries’ technology is completely hardware agnostic and can empower any device with a control unit with full mission-based autonomy. From there, Occam-X requires no outside communication or signals. It can be installed on a platform, disconnecting the radio, the antenna and the gps, rendering the platform completely disconnected from the world. When powered on, it will attempt to complete its mission nonetheless. A platform that uses no communications, data or outside signal is effectively immune to spoofing, comms denial or data poisoning.

Interestingly, the Occam Industries’ team chooses not to draw any ethical and operational lines between human oversight and fully autonomous decision-making in combat scenarios itself. Instead, these decisions are entirely up to the partners. The AI, left unsupervised, is fully autonomous and will continue to eliminate threats until either the threats are gone or the platform it is operating becomes incapable of further action.

‘We provide training on how and when you should release Occam-X but it is on our partners to ensure that we are released in a suitable environment, with suitable targets. Future versions will have guardrails, but in war things change fast, and we trust our pilots, ultimately responsible for releasing our AI at the enemy, to ensure that it is safe to do so,’ Mr Wainwright explains.

Ukraine as the Ultimate Testing Ground for Defense Innovation

Following January’s successful battlefield evaluations, Brave1—the unified Ukrainian government platform and defense-tech cluster—is advancing cooperation between Occam Industries and selected Ukrainian manufacturers to introduce its AI-driven autonomy technology into Ukraine’s unmanned systems ecosystem. Initial tests conducted through the TEST in Ukraine platform demonstrated the potential for broader automation adoption across defense operations, leading to the next phase: a Proof of Concept on a Ukrainian drone platform designed for harsh combat and weather conditions. If further trials succeed, the technology could move toward large-scale deployment with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

‘We highly value the fact that British technology companies like Occam are working directly with Ukraine to respond to real frontline needs – an experience that strengthens not only Ukraine, but Europe as a whole,’ Brave1’s CEO Andrii Hrytseniuk comments.

From Experiments to Potential Frontline Deployment 

The new funding is meant to help Occam Industries expand the deployment of its autonomous systems across Ukraine’s frontlines while advancing additional support capabilities powered by autonomy. At the same time, the company is launching commercial integration projects with major European defense contractors. These collaborations are expected to lead to operational deployments later this year.

‘There will always be a need for human soldiers. We do not aim to replace human soldiers. We are part of a system, and together, AI and human, we can create a wall that an enemy simply cannot pass through. What that will reduce is the number of times soldiers need to risk their lives. War will never be safe, but when the risk is high, an Occam-powered platform can pay the price, protecting our troops and keeping them set back from active combat unless absolutely necessary,’ Mr Wainwright concludes.

As autonomous warfare rapidly reshapes modern defense, Occam Industries is positioning itself at the forefront of a new defense paradigm in which scalable AI systems can reduce human exposure on the battlefield while increasing operational resilience. Its close collaboration with Ukraine — currently the world’s most demanding testing ground for defense innovation — empowers the company to validate and refine its technology under real battlefield conditions, potentially influencing the future direction of global defense capabilities.