How Investors See Defense Tech Today: Q&A with Cristóbal Alonso

After investing in more than 450 startups through Startup Wise Guys, Cristóbal Alonso, Managing Director at Wolver Ventures, shifted his focus toward cybersecurity and defense tech — long before these sectors entered the global spotlight.

Ahead of IT Arena 2026, Cristóbal shared his perspective on Ukrainian founders, the rise of defense tech investment, and the mindset needed to scale startups in rapidly changing markets.

— You moved from investing in 450+ startups at Startup Wise Guys to focusing on defense and cybersecurity. Did Ukraine validate this shift?

— Since 2018, I have invested in cybersecurity, and my second and third investments were in defense tech startups — Buntar and Frontline Robotics — both Ukrainian.

Buntar was a founder bet, as we invested in its CEO, whom we already knew as the co-founder of another Ukrainian fintech startup. Our third investment — Frontline Robotics, with a completely new founding team we had not worked with before — clearly validated our thesis after reviewing another 50 potential investments in the sector, most of them from Ukraine.

Both investments are already paying off from a returns perspective and have strengthened my conviction in defense as one of my three investment pillars: defend, innovate, reindustrialize.

— Most investors talk about Ukraine through the lens of risk. You talk about opportunity. At what point does Ukraine become essential to any serious defense tech portfolio?

— I’ve been investing in Ukraine since 2016 and have always met founders who are determined, driven, and ambitious, even if many initially lacked the expertise to scale — particularly in sales. Continuing to focus on Ukraine after the full-scale invasion in 2022 wasn’t a bold bet — it simply made sense.

Teams remain determined to succeed, and none of the founders we invested in said, “Sorry, there is a war, it’s too difficult, we quit.” They all found ways to continue.

Even founders who called for military duty managed to put transition teams in place to keep their companies running. This is exactly the kind of resilience investors look for in founders.

— What value do events like IT Arena bring to investors and startups?

— To have meaningful conversations, you need to know the people, not just the business — and in many cases, go beyond the CEO. In-person events make this possible. Online communication is effective, but you often miss the opportunity to build real connections.

In many cases, discussions with other VC investors are more direct in person than online, and face-to-face meetings also help reconnect with people you’ve only stayed in touch with digitally.

There are always new things happening that open your eyes to new opportunities, ideas, and founders.

— What’s one myth about founders you stopped believing after writing your bestselling book on leadership and entrepreneurship?

— You can help a founder think much bigger, but ambition is either part of their character or it isn’t. And listening skills are extremely difficult to coach. Some founders listen, others don’t. Being able to make that judgment is one of the most important parts of leadership.

Ukraine is no longer seen by investors only through the lens of wartime risk. Today, it is becoming one of the world’s most dynamic environments for building, testing, and scaling defense technologies. Investors are increasingly backing founders who can move fast, adapt under pressure, and continue building in uncertain conditions rather than waiting for perfect ones.

Meet Cristóbal in person at IT Arena 2026 in Lviv during the last weekend of September. Hear directly from investors shaping the future of defense tech — and connect with the founders they support.

Get your ticket at itarena.ua