September reminded us how connected innovation can be. At IT Arena – one of UA’s leading tech events – the Defence Builder accelerator brought Ukrainian defense startups to the main stage – proving that ideas from our region can compete globally.
At the same time, the world of tech kept moving fast: OpenAI signed trillion-dollar compute deals, Fintech-IT Group became Ukraine’s newest unicorn, and investors doubled down on defense tech. And closer to home, Labs Galaxy gathered Sigma Software specialists in Lviv for Mafia: Startup Edition – a mix of strategy, teamwork, and laughter.
Here’s what shaped this month for Sigma Software Labs and the global innovation landscape we’re part of.
Defence Builder at IT Arena
Two startups from the defense accelerator, co-founded by Labs, pitched on the main stage of IT Arena 2025, one of UA’s top tech events. BabAI took 2nd place with its AI-driven drone protection system – another step showing how Ukraine’s defense tech is growing global, and Sigma Software is helping make it happen.
European defense tech funding tops $1.5B
Investments in Europe’s defense tech have doubled this year – already hitting $1.5B and projected to reach $2.3B by year-end. Most of the funding goes to AI-powered systems, autonomous platforms, and drones, with Ukraine driving much of this innovation shift. Defense tech is no longer a domain – it’s Europe’s fastest-growing VC sector, and the field where Ukrainian teams are already setting global trends.
OpenAI signs $1T compute deals
The company secured record-breaking contracts with NVIDIA, AMD, Oracle, and CoreWeave to expand its AI infrastructure – showing how computing power is becoming the new currency in global innovation.
Fintech-IT Group becomes Ukraine’s fintech unicorn
The company behind Monobank raised new funding from UMAEF, a U.S. government–backed investment fund, bringing its valuation above $1B. This makes Fintech-IT Group Ukraine’s first fintech unicorn, joining global names like Grammarly and People.ai.
YC founders pivoted 5 times before success
Founders of Candle, a startup from Y Combinator – the world’s best-known startup accelerator (Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox alumni) – tried five ideas before finding the one that worked. Their social app, built to help people stay connected through daily prompts, reached 300K users and $1M ARR in just six months.
Mafia: Startup Edition held in Lviv
Over 30 Sigma Software specialists from Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and Cherkasy joined the second round of Mafia: Startup Edition, part of the internal Labs Galaxy community. The game transformed teamwork, strategy, and pitching into a fun practice – demonstrating how startup thinking can unite people across offices.
See you next month – and keep building what’s next.
