Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Joins Ukrainian Startup to Unleash AI Drone Swarms

Erik Prince, the infamous founder of the US mercenary giant Blackwater, has officially entered the drone warfare arena in Ukraine.

According to The Guardian, citing SEC filings from February 23, 2026, Prince has been appointed as the non-executive chairman of Swarmer, a battle-tested Ukrainian startup specializing in AI-driven autonomous drone swarms.

The move signals a major shift in what the world’s most controversial private military figure is betting on—Ukraine’s “Killbox ” technology.

Swarmer isn’t just another tech firm; it is a company forged in the “cauldron of modern combat.” Since April 2024, its platform has executed over 100,000 real-world combat missions, using machine learning to coordinate drone swarms that act with collective autonomy.

As reported by The Guardian, Prince has made several trips to Kyiv since last September to court drone manufacturers, and his new role is clear: use his deep-state connections to sell Ukraine’s cutting-edge “Killbox” software to the US Department of Defense and NATO allies, who are currently desperate for “drone dominance.”

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Drones currently account for 70% of all combat casualties in the war against Russia, and Prince is eyeing the massive profits as the Pentagon pivots toward mass-producing unmanned platforms.

Earlier, Swarmer raised $15 million in a Series A round backed by leading US investors, marking one of the largest investments in Ukraine’s defense sector since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Co-founded in 2023 by Serhiy Kuprienko and Alex Fink, the company develops AI-powered systems that allow a single operator to control multiple drones simultaneously.

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