Aequo, one of Ukraine’s leading law firms, has become the official legal partner of DB Accelerator Batch 4.0, the fourth cohort of Defence Builder’s accelerator for defence and dual-use start-ups. Over the four months of the programme, Aequo’s lawyers will run the legal track for the cohort, covering corporate structuring, intellectual property and contract work. Applications for Batch 4.0 are open until 30 October.

Legal structuring is typically the last thing early-stage defence-tech teams address, and it is often the point where deals slow down or fall through: an investor asks who owns the code and how equity is split between founders, or a foreign partner sends a contract whose terms nobody has reviewed. Resolving these questions at the due-diligence stage can take months and put the deal itself at risk.

Within Batch 4.0, teams will work through these questions with Aequo before they reach an investor or a foreign counterparty. The legal track covers setting up the company in the structure investors expect to see; securing the company’s full ownership of its product and intellectual property; agreeing the equity split between founders and investors; understanding export control rules before signing with foreign partners; and identifying which investment terms to negotiate before closing.

Aequo has been named Law Firm of the Year: Ukraine at The Lawyer European Awards two years in a row. The firm advised Ukrainian Defence Industry on its joint venture with Rheinmetall and runs Startup Desk, a dedicated practice for tech and defence-tech teams.

DB Accelerator Batch 4.0 accepts defence and dual-use teams from any country with a working prototype at TRL 4 or above. The programme runs for four months starting in November 2026 and combines a military track, with field days and demonstrations to procurement officers and end users, and a business track covering unit economics, IP, export, production and fundraising. Selected teams receive a starting grant in exchange for a minority equity stake, with additional funding from partners during the programme based on performance.

Applications are open until 30 October 2026: defencebuilder.com/batch4-application-form

Programme details: defencebuilder.com/batch4