Ailand Systems
Ukrainian startup building AI-enabled autonomous drones that detect landmines up to 20x faster than manual sweeps — its Spinner UAV is the first Ukrainian mine-detection drone with a NATO Stock Number.
Background
Ailand Systems, founded in 2023 by CEO Dmytro Titov and headquartered in Kyiv (Protasiv Yar), builds smart autonomous drones centered on machine perception and autonomy for demining. Its flagship, Spinner (formerly ST1), is a quadcopter purpose-built for humanitarian demining: it pairs an RGB/multispectral camera with dual metal-detector search coils to find all mine types — including low-metal-content models such as the PMN-2 — at depths to ~15 cm, scanning a 1.5 m strip per pass and, the company says, working up to 20x faster than manual inspection.
Detections relay to a sapper in real time and are processed by an AI model trained on 400,000+ landmine images, while a 360-degree lidar enables obstacle-avoiding autonomous low-altitude flight. The line has branched: the RT1 handles explosive devices; ST2 (unveiled Sept 2025 at Brave1's Defense Tech Valley) is a lighter, EW-resistant multifunction drone that flags IEDs and 'wait-and-hit' FPV drones; and Raptor, a multi-purpose reconnaissance UAV, was codified in 2026. In December 2025 Spinner became the first Ukrainian mine-detection drone codified under the NATO Codification System, receiving its own NATO Stock Number — the milestone that frames the company's export ambition.
Financial footing
- $200K seed closed July 2024 (Uklon co-founders via their Nezlamni/Unbroken defense-tech fund) — CB Insights and Tracxn log ~$200K total raised, though PitchBook shows $100K, so the exact total is unconfirmed
- Brave1 grants confirmed: $5,000 (Sept 2023) + $25,000 (May 2024)
- Selected for the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund (2024, amount undisclosed)
- Raptor listed for state procurement on the DOT-Chain Defence marketplace via the Defence Procurement Agency (2026)
- Technology partner in the UNIDO 'Green Industrial Recovery' project funded by Japan's METI (with Prodrone, Padeco, DroneUA)
- No disclosed dollar-value procurement contract
- Backers: Nezlamni/Unbroken fund (Uklon co-founders Dmytro Dubrovsky, Viktoriia Dubrovska, Serhii Smus, Vitalii Diatlenko); D3 Venture Capital (reported by thedefender.media/PitchBook); Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund; non-dilutive Brave1 state grants. PitchBook also lists 1991 Ventures/Google Accelerator.
Ailand is early-stage and lean. Its headline round is a $200,000 seed closed in July 2024 from the Uklon ride-hailing co-founders (Dmytro Dubrovsky, Viktoriia Dubrovska, Serhii Smus, Vitalii Diatlenko) via their Nezlamni/Unbroken defense-tech fund; startup databases (CB Insights, Tracxn) log ~$200K total raised, and thedefender.media also names D3 Venture Capital as an investor.
State cluster Brave1 added non-dilutive grants — $5,000 in Sept 2023 and $25,000 in May 2024 — and the firm was selected for the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund (amount undisclosed). No valuation is public and reported totals diverge (PitchBook shows $100K), so treat the exact figure as unconfirmed. Recognition — Forbes Ukraine's NEXT 250, Techosystem's Top 100 Rising Ukrainian Startups, and a DIGITALEUROPE Future Unicorn nomination — outpaces disclosed capital, a common profile for wartime Ukrainian dual-use startups.
Major customers & contracts
Adoption is real but small-scale and demining-first. Ailand shipped a batch of ST1/Spinner units for humanitarian demining in the heavily contaminated Kharkiv region (May 2025) for non-technical survey and quality assurance, and delivered a crowdfunded Spinner EOD drone to Irpin community sappers (Jan 2026). The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has tested the system, and Raptor is now listed for procurement on the state DOT-Chain Defence marketplace via the Defence Procurement Agency.
Internationally, Ailand is the Ukrainian technology partner in a UNIDO 'Green Industrial Recovery' project funded by Japan's METI, integrating its metal detector onto a Prodrone UAV alongside Padeco and DroneUA (field trials near Kyiv, 2026). It has courted buyers at the Paris Air Show 2025 and drawn interest from Denmark, which funds Mykolaiv-region demining.
Leadership & contact surface
Leadership: Dmytro Titov (Founder & CEO)
Official site: https://ailandsystems.com
Competitive position
The wedge: most 'AI demining' rivals do optical/AI image analysis from the air, spotting surface ordnance; Ailand couples that with a drone-mounted subsurface metal detector meeting handheld-detector performance, targeting the buried, low-metal mines that defeat cameras. US-based Safe Pro Group (its SPOTD system on Red Cat's Black Widow, trained on 1.88M images) is the nearest aerial AI-detection competitor but is optical; Ukrainian ground robots such as Sirko-S1 (TROPIYA) and Ratel Robotics clear rather than survey — Ailand's own Rovertech MoU frames drone-survey plus rover-clearance as complementary, not rival.
Legacy mechanical/EOD players (Pearson Engineering, Tetra Tech) address a different tier. Ailand's differentiation is the full stack — autonomous flight, dual-sensor detection, AI, and a civil/military product ladder (Spinner, ST2, Raptor, a third-party-drone sensor kit, and a civilian 'treasure-hunting' variant) — plus first-mover NATO codification for interoperability and export.
Battlefield relevance
Fielded vs. demonstrated splits by product. Spinner/ST1 is genuinely in use: MoD-tested, delivered to Kharkiv and Irpin demining teams, and used in real operations to find mines and UXO — though this is rear-area and liberated-territory humanitarian demining, not under-fire clearance, and volumes are small. ST2, pitched for the front line (IED and FPV-drone detection, EW resistance), was unveiled only in Sept 2025 and is 'available for order' — more demonstrated than combat-proven.
Raptor, a recon/target-detection UAV, is newer still (codified 2026), its uptake unverified. So the demining capability is credibly proven at pilot scale, while the frontline and reconnaissance extensions remain early. The pull is enormous: Ukraine is the world's most-mined country, with ~174,000 sq km potentially hazardous — traditional clearance is estimated to take centuries.
Sources & verification
- AILAND SYSTEMS — Company & news page (official)
- Vestbee — Ukrainian startup Ailand Systems secures $200k to scale production of drones (Jul 8, 2024)
- TechUkraine — Ailand Systems' Spinner UAV Granted NATO Stock Number (Dec 16, 2025)
- The Defender Media — Ailand Systems codifies Ukraine's 'first mine-detection drone' (Dec 15, 2025)
- Drone Directory (Ukraine) — Ailand Systems profile
- CB Insights — Ailand Systems (HQ, funding total, investors)
- TIME — Ukraine Is Using AI to Help Clear Millions of Landmines (Nov 2, 2023)
- Ukraine's Arms Monitor — Arms Trends: Safe Pro/Red Cat SPOTD demining AI (Sep 22, 2025)