Just because a company has a website and product brochures doesn’t mean it has an actual business, and certainly not a profitable one. I didn’t see any references to Summa Defence in the news you linked. You shouldn’t get obsessed with any company or investment story. If the facts change, you must be able to update your opinion of the company.
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I, on the other hand, don’t believe it. After all, the company had no proof of drone expertise or production at the stage when those negotiations were reported. And still, regarding drones, there is no evidence of anything else other than that something has been delivered to Ukraine for testing. That is, if the company management has even spoken the truth in that matter.
A 60 MEUR market cap for an outfit on the brink of bankruptcy is not attractive. Especially because of the management’s bungling.
An update on the payment delays of the Summa companies, picked up today from the Kauppalehti forum:
”Uudenkaupungin Työvene, or ‘työ vene’ [work boat] as some put it, has paid off its 1,500 euro arrears. Similarly, Aquamec is okay; invoices haven’t been sent to debt collection there yet.
Lännen Tractors’ arrears have grown to 44,402 euros. Presumably, the invoice for the factory’s first-aid cabinet (350 EUR) is also in collection.
Regarding the delays of Summa’s parent company, i.e., the PLC, the same 5,000 euro rent has appeared, which was already once paid. Perhaps the rent for the Mäkelänkatu headquarters is paid every month via the bailiff?
Then a new gem was found. Summa Drones Oy is 100% owned by Summa Holding Oy, which acts as the parent company for the former. There are currently 23,461 euros in arrears there in all sorts of directions.”
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If the FDF wants to start domestic drone production, are there better alternatives than this one, which offers ready-made products optimized for combat use?
Well, for example, I think Sensofusion is a more credible domestic drone manufacturer. The company’s counter-drones and other technology are being used in the war in Ukraine. Lifeline Ventures and Varma have invested in the company. The company has already closed deals with NATO countries. In December, the Finnish Defence Forces announced they were purchasing Sensofusion’s technology for conscript use. In 2024, Sensofusion’s revenue was 20.8 million euros, so it is a credible business rather than just sending trial batches to Ukraine.
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I don’t believe it either. The company had no track record of drone expertise or production at the stage when those negotiations were reported.
Their own expertise isn’t even strictly needed when the expertise comes from Ukraine. They wouldn’t have been able to produce them with just their own expertise yet anyway. Those ZEUS drones were already equipment approved by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence even before the Summa cooperation was announced.
And still, regarding drones, there is no real evidence of anything other than that something has been delivered to Ukraine for testing. Provided that the company management has even told the truth on that matter.
What is the evidence you are looking for? There are already videos and technical specifications on the site, and even the Ukrainian media has already reported on the field tests of the first test batches.
A 60 MEUR market value for a company on the brink of bankruptcy is not attractive
That has nothing to do (yet) with being on the brink of bankruptcy as a group. Some subsidiary of Lännen Tractors might be a different story. The group’s cash liquidity has been weak, but it won’t drive the company into bankruptcy yet with that balance sheet and order book. That Uusikaupunki Workboat you mentioned alone has perhaps a hundred million order book and has invested heavily; it produced quite good operating profits in '25 regardless, and will surely get the necessary bridge financing it needs to push through large projects.
Generally speaking, those sums are just peanuts even for Summa. So small that they wouldn’t even indicate actual liquidity problems, although one is undoubtedly present since they needed 5M in financing recently.
By the way, it’s quite typical in Finland that even large and solvent companies delay their payments. You might be surprised which listed names would come to light. Delays are made both intentionally and unintentionally due to administrative delays.
Well, for example, Sensofusion is in my opinion a more credible domestic drone manufacturer
It might be, if it had attack or reconnaissance drones in its catalog. But it doesn’t, and as far as is known, the company hasn’t aimed to develop such things. Their only drone is a so-called interceptor counter-drone, the development of which is likely still ongoing.
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Uudenkaupungin Työvene is Summa’s crown jewel. But… Its operating profit for an eighteen-month financial period was 1.7 MEUR. Meaning just over a million euros per year. At the same time, Lännen Tractors is making many times that in losses, running Summa’s headquarters takes its toll, financing arrangements increase debt servicing costs, etc.
So what does Summa have to offer anyone in drone production? Does it have the resources to invest in the industry? Is it verified that the premises even exist or that the firm has employees hired for drone production? On which company’s payroll are they?
What is certain is that Summa has lied on its website about its drone production so far. For example, the fact that large-scale commercial production would not start in H1/25 was only corrected retrospectively. After H1 had already passed, the company’s website still gave the impression that commercial production was already in full swing.
It is impossible to understand why anyone would put their money into that trash. Or if they have, why they don’t sell their shares off, as the company is currently a bubble-priced, loss-making outfit living in a financial crisis.
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So what does Summa have to offer anyone in terms of drone production?
The ready-made, type-approved, battle-tested models with their algorithms that directly fit Ukraine’s defense, and which Summa seems to have acquired on a turnkey basis. As a company otherwise, perhaps not much.
Does it have the resources to invest in the industry?
Not with the current cash position, at least, but the R&D need regarding drones is likely very minimal for the reason mentioned above. And drone assembly is probably not very capital-intensive work. The components, after all, largely come ready-made.
Is it verified that there are any premises at all, or that the company has employees hired for drone production? On which company’s payroll are they?
I don’t see it as relevant, and the information is kept under wraps for a good reason. I’m sure those people exist, given that the drones already made it to operational tests on the front line.
What is certain is that Summa has lied on its website about its drone production up to this point.
Again, Summa can be criticized for many things and for good reason, but this is turning into a bit of childish grumbling. The company communicated a goal for H1, and it was realized in H2.
The company is even now a bubble-priced, loss-making outfit living in a financial crisis.
Well, a 60M EUR bubble. The revenue target of 100M is quite realistic, though, and corporate restructurings and new projects will incur costs for '25. Loss from January to September was 13.9M EUR, of which EBIT was 12.1M. But of that, ten million was related to corporate restructurings and goodwill amortization. Roughly speaking, it looks like the Adjusted Operating Profit would be -1.6 million euros. Not even bad for a strongly growing company in the middle of a merger mess. It’ll easily turn positive when the workboat’s (työvene) large deliveries are settled.
A loss of a few million wouldn’t be a big deal even if the entire loss belonged to Uusikaupunki Workboat (Uudenkaupungin Työvene) alone, as that firm by itself is likely to at least double its revenue in 2026 compared to '24. Its biggest problem is cash liquidity, but that should improve when the 120M order book from September starts converting into revenue. Another problem is that no new large orders have been announced in recent months. And yeah, all that messing around in management is probably in a league of its own.
Actually, it didn’t happen. In H2, they managed to deliver some test units to Ukraine. That is a far cry from a situation where commercial production is in full swing. Not a single one of Summa’s drone companies is even registered in the employer register, by the way.
Everyone should also realize that the location of any large drone factory in Finland would not remain a secret for long.
Summa’s drone business is a lot of talk but very little to show for it. In other words, stringing investors along.
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By the way, it didn’t happen. Test units were delivered to Ukraine in H2. That is a far cry from a situation where commercial production is in full swing.
In connection with the Q3 review in the autumn, the phase was said to have progressed to the flight testing stage. In December, it was stated that industrial delivery readiness would be established during 2025 and that the first product batch has been delivered for use by a unit of the Ukrainian army. According to the release, feedback had already been received from the Ukrainian Armed Forces by this stage, and performance and functionality have been verified in combat conditions, so it might not really be accurate to call it a “test batch” anymore.
“Industrial production” and the volumes involved are, then, rhetoric open to interpretation.
Incidentally, none of Summa’s drone companies are even registered in the employer register.
This has already been addressed earlier in the thread. Completely irrelevant. They don’t need to have a single employee.
Everyone should also realize that the location of a large drone factory in Finland wouldn’t stay secret for long.
Why? What kind of massive factory did you imagine this to be? They aren’t winding their own motors or printing electronics there. Components come from elsewhere, and in the early stages, the actual drone factory is certainly mainly focused on assembly and frame construction.
Indeed, that Summa drone business is a lot of talk but few results. In other words, leading investors on.
Again, I don’t want to pump too much false hope into this company, but what would be the “proof” you’re looking for at this stage before orders are announced?
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To this, I could also add the Steel Eagle™ ER drone solution developed by Insta Group, in addition to Sensofusion mentioned by @pullahuru.
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“Drone production is intended to begin on a large scale in early 2025.”
On a large scale. I repeat, on a large scale. Such production still doesn’t exist. Summa’s drone story is a total scam. Like many other things in that company.
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It’s pointless to refer to the company’s releases, because everyone knows you have to look for the facts somewhere other than Summa Defence’s announcements.
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On a large scale. I repeat, on a large scale. Such production still doesn’t exist.
Where on earth do you think you know what the production volume and capacity are?
Bloomberg has also interviewed a representative of the partner company TSIR, who talks about expanding drone production to Europe, specifically to Finland. The article also mentions the FlyWell drone consortium, which is essentially Summa’s cluster of partner companies, and that it is seeking €50 million in funding.
Bloomberg highlights that Oleksandr Hrachov, CEO of leading Ukrainian drone manufacturer TSIR, is building a drone assembly line in Finland as part of a strategic shift to move production out of the warzone and into NATO territory. The new facility, developed in partnership with Finnish firm Summa Defence Plc, is expected to produce tactical drones for both Ukrainian forces and allied militaries.
According to Bloomberg, this move is part of a broader trend. Ukrainian firms, including members of the FlyWell drone consortium, are raising $50 million to fund additional production and R&D projects across Europe, including hydrogen-powered UAVs. Summa Defence has already prototyped three drone models that await battlefield testing in Ukraine.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-11-11/ukraine-drone-industry-targets-nato-markets
Also here:
An engineer by training, Hrachov runs a major Ukrainian drone producer called TSIR and is among the first entrepreneurs there to seek NATO partnerships abroad. The need to develop and fund weapons to fight off Russia’s invasion is increasingly pushing them to share technology with European partners.
Hrachov’s on assignment for several weeks in Finland, where his company is setting up a plant to make tactical drones — quadcopters that can travel up to 15 kilometers and are used for surveillance and strikes along the frontline — in a joint venture with Finnish partner Summa Defence Plc.
The project is under the umbrella of FlyWell, a holding company that brings together several Ukrainian companies that make air, ground and sea drones designed to spy on and target Russian assets from the front line to as far away as 2,000 kilometers. FlyWell is seeking to raise about $50 million to pay for additional European production and research projects, including one that would use hydrogen cells to power drones.
Ukraine’s ability to make drones on the cheap is another reason Europe is eager to learn. FlyWell consortium members alone produce hundreds of thousands of drones a year. By comparison, European producers tend to produce more expensive weapons in much lower quantities.
That strategy, which is benefiting from the hundreds of billions of euros that European countries are spending on rearmament, has created a gold rush for startups. Germany’s Helsing, which raised €600 million in June for its artificial intelligence-controlled drones, has only produced several thousand drones for Ukraine.
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Hrachov was one of Ukraine’s early believers in unmanned systems.
Following Putin’s order to seize crimea from Ukraine in February 2014, he volunteered for a force that thought it could liberate the peninsula in 90 days. Hrachov was one of the Ukrainian soldiers nicknamed Cyborgs who withstood months of intense Russian assaults at the Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine that year.
The bucolic birch and pine forests that surround the town in Finland where Oleksandr Hrachov is building a drone assembly line for Ukraine remind him of Siberia. It’s not a happy memory — his father sent him there from Kyiv as a child, fearing radiation fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
That was a lifetime ago and in another country, before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Now when Hrachov thinks about Siberia he’s focused on how to inflict maximum pain on Russia’s economy with drone strikes to help defeat Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
An engineer by training, Hrachov runs a major Ukrainian drone producer called TSIR and is among the first entrepreneurs there to seek NATO partnerships abroad. The need to develop and fund weapons to fight off Russia’s invasion is increasingly pushing them to share technology with European partners.
The war — and the need to fund, develop and build weapons to fight against a richer, larger enemy — has pushed Ukrainian manufacturers to share technology with European allies. Hrachov says he’s seeking two things in Finland: to ensure the front in Ukraine is well supplied by moving some production beyond the war zone, and to tap western financing for more production.
He worries Europe isn’t learning from Ukraine’s experience fast enough: his drones in Ukraine have gone through three generations in the time it’s taken him to set up a production line in Finland.
There are no indications of a single drone sale, an actively operating drone company, or employees hired for it. Nor is there any sign that Sumna, which is in a financial crisis, has made any significant related investments, or that it even has the means to do so.
There is only some test batch sent to Ukraine, which doesn’t add to the company’s cash reserves, and about which no one knows—not even down to the level of a specific company name—on whose dime they were produced or where they were produced.
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