Ragnar Sass An entrepreneur and angel investor, Sass has emerged as the real godfather of the Estonian startup ecosystem. As co-founder of Darkstar, he’s now disrupting the defense technology industrial base with his new location-first approach to investment. Darkstar is continuing to respond to the crisis situation in Ukraine. With a focus on impact and sustainability, they’ve recently made investments into two startups—FarSight Vision and Deftak—embedded deeply in the rich Ukrainian-Estonian tech ecosystem.
Her journey into the world of defense technology is not a typical path. He has focused on building this knowledge for more than 10 years through the hackathon community Garage48 from 2010-2020. Though some may see this experience as a setback, it instead prepared him for his later ventures, including co-founding the wildly successful CRM and sales tool Pipedrive. His exit from Pipedrive, which is a unicorn, allowed him to do more than 50 angel investments. This decision contributed to making his legacy rock solid in the whole startup world.
Darkstar recently marked a big milestone by closing a €15 million (approximately $17.5 million) round of early stage funding. This success was fostered by the European entrepreneur, family office and Estonian-state backed LP SmartCap. This financial support reflects a broader acknowledgement of the vital role defense technology plays in confronting today’s threats.
Sass stresses that the urgency of today’s security environment means that we need much more participation from the tech community. He believes that “the enemy is moving very fast, and that’s exactly why I believe that we need to have the tech community being involved way more to address that huge and growing threat.” His depth of dedication to this cause is evident from both his personal and business ties to Ukraine. He and his fleet of trucks have brought relief trucks and aid to the country dozens of times.
Darkstar Investments mostly takes care of Pre-seed and Seed Rounds, usually writing €500.000-1M checks. Like any great creative team, Sass and his cohorts jumped straight in. They work hand-in-hand with the startups to ensure these products get into the hands of their military customers in Ukraine and across Europe. Their upcoming bootcamp in Kyiv aims to provide startups with essential “feedback, field-testing opportunities, and combat validation,” showcasing Darkstar’s commitment to fostering innovation in defense technology.
Sass holds that this short, intense workshop around actual industry leaders, combined with the focus on combat-proven solutions, is necessary to Europe’s rearmament efforts. He asserts that “this is very critical, not only today but for the next 10 years.” Advanced technologies are upending battlefields and military doctrines. They could very much improve Europe’s defense posture in a dynamic and increasingly threatening environment.
Sass draws parallels between elite military units and startups, noting that “elite units are more similar to startups than we can imagine.” This perspective informs Darkstar’s approach to investing. They’re politically and legislatively backstopping companies that can build and deploy solutions at speed and scale—and that’s what the battlefields of current and future warfare require.
With a keen understanding of operational excellence, Sass emphasizes that “in any company which wants to be part of European procurement or even grants, the operational side has to be perfect.” He acknowledges that while innovation is essential, it must be underpinned by real know-how to ensure success. “If you don’t have real know-how in that area, you’re struggling,” he cautions.
Reflecting on his transition into defense systems, Sass admits it took considerable time for him to mentally embrace this new direction: “It took quite a long time mentally to understand that I want to be involved in weapon systems.” His decision to fully invest in this sector is a big step. Geopolitical tensions have had the effect of causing many current and potential investors to see the strategic imperative of defense technology.