Ukrainian company Tencore and French company Shark Robotics will build Unmanned Ground Vehicles together, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos announced at the Ukraine Business Summit on 22 April.
Tencore confirmed the joint venture, created under the aegis of the Build with Ukraine initiative, which aims to boost Ukraine's defense industry by creating partnerships and joint production lines abroad.
“In Ukraine, we create solutions under pressure and in real conditions. Together with Shark Robotics, we combine combat robotics and robotics for civil protection,” CEO Maksim Vasylchenko posted on social media. “It is this complementarity that makes our partnership strong.”
The role of UGVs in the full-scale invasion has soared recently, with production climbing by 488% in 2025, the Kyiv School of Economics estimated.
In Ukraine, this segment of the industry is still quite young and has yet to reach its full potential, worth just $252 million in 2025. Still, the UGV market is “highly diversified” by manufacturer, with room for producers to enter if they have good products, according to KSE.
The innovation on display appears to be attracting increasing attention from Europeans. Kos called Ukraine "central to European security and economic resilience," adding that Ukrainians are building an "Arsenal of Democracy."
Tencore is known for its TerMIT system, a highly modular ground robot that’s serving with multiple Ukrainian brigades on the front lines. With a carrying capacity of 300 kilograms, it can be turned into a logistics vehicle to resupply or evacuate the wounded, it can lay mines, or mount weapons to attack enemy forces.
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Shark Robotics builds several lines of firefighting robots, a logistics and transport robot, a demining robot, and remote-controlled spike strips for civil security.
This is not Tencore’s first European joint venture this year. In February, the Ukrainian company signed an agreement with Germany’s autonomous truck producer FERNRIDE to manufacture TerMIT UGVs.
Also at the Ukraine Business Summit, Danish satellite producer GomSpace signed a deal with Ukrainian satellite producer Stetman.
