The Hamburg startup ecosystem is home to a wide range of communities and event series that offer valuable networking opportunities. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing some of them to you.
The Defence Tech Meetup Hamburg has been around since April 2026. It was founded by Alexander Ternovy, who was born in Ukraine. In this interview, he explains why he is hosting the event.
I originally come from a technical background and have always wanted to become an entrepreneur and build products of my own.
After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I started looking for ways to contribute. One of my first projects was a startup building personalised finger prosthetics remotely for people who needed them. It didn’t work out as well as I had hoped, but I learned a lot from it. A little over a year ago, I got deeper into defence tech. I joined a community that was building drones for Ukraine, which got me interested in the broader defence technology ecosystem. Since then, I’ve been attending conferences, talking to people in the industry and testing different business ideas.
A lot of my friends are also currently serving in the Ukrainian army, so the topic is quite personal for me. At the same time, when you look at what is happening on the battlefield, you can see how much the speed of innovation matters. For almost every new technology there is a countermeasure, and then a countermeasure to that countermeasure. It becomes a continuous cycle of innovation, and the side that can innovate faster has a major advantage.
I believe Europe needs to become much stronger and more independent in this area. The defence industry and the technology around it will be increasingly important for European security, and I think there is a lot of room for Europe to build its own capabilities.
That is also where the idea for the meetups came from. While exploring the industry, I realised how important personal connections are in defence. In many software businesses, you can build a product and reach customers through online marketing without necessarily knowing many people in the industry. Defence is very different. Who you know matters a lot. Startups need investors and customers, companies need engineers, engineers need interesting projects, and investors need access to good teams.
So I wanted to create a place where these people could meet. The goal is not simply to organise events, but to create connections that lead to actual cooperation. If an investor finds a startup, a startup finds an engineer, or two people meet and start working on something together, everyone benefits and the ecosystem becomes stronger.
At the moment, I’m working on scaling the meetups and looking for sponsors who want to support the community. Personally, I’m also working on my own hardware startup project in the defence tech space. It is still in the resource-building phase, so I’m keeping the details relatively private for now.
The next Defence Tech Meetups are scheduled for September and October 2026; we will announce the details timely in our events calendar.
Startup City Hamburg is the central point of contact for Hamburg's startup ecosystem: we report on news & events, founders, and success stories from the scene, provide context on current developments, and keep track of funding opportunities. With personalized guidance from our Startup Guides and a network of founders, investors, and institutions, we give aspiring founders and startups an overview of the ecosystem.
Startup City Hamburg is part of IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH and is funded by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg through the Ministry of Economics, Labour and Innovation (BWAI).
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