The French startup Comand AI, which develops AI-powered command-and-control (C2) platforms for military applications, has teamed up with Ukraine’s Griselda to co-develop a C5ISR (Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) software interface. Comand AI has launched operations in Kyiv for this large-scale project, collaborating with Griselda under the leadership of Alex Teplukhin and Dmytro Shamrai. This joint initiative to create software for the Ukrainian Armed Forces highlights the deepening Franco-Ukrainian partnership and signals broader efforts to diversify technological dependencies away from dominant U.S. firms amid shifting geopolitics — a strategic realignment particularly evident following Donald Trump’s return to power in the United States.
The formal agreement, ratified in 2025 by Patrick Aufort of France’s Defense Innovation Agency (AID) and Nataliia Kushnerska of Ukraine’s Brave1 defense technology cluster, establishes a framework for joint testing and assessment of innovative solutions. The new partnership merges Griselda’s extensive expertise in multi-sensor data processing with Comand AI’s advanced AI-driven Command & Control (C2) systems. For the French company, finding a suitable local partner in Ukraine’s ecosystem proved challenging, as U.S.-based Palantir — a leader in data collection and analysis — held a firm market position in late 2024. Griselda, wary of potential Russian countermeasures, exercises extreme caution in selecting partners, forcing its executives to frequently relocate offices in Kyiv and conceal the full scope of their operations.
Jean-Baptiste Mougel, former head of French shipbuilding giant Naval Group, founded Comand AI in 2023 after the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict with the company’s leadership team drawing extensively from former engineers of Palantir, OpenAI, McKinsey, as well as business analysts from specialized units of the French Armed Forces. The startup has already secured contracts with French and German militaries late last year to supply its Prevail command-data fusion software. This AI-powered platform is designed to streamline the planning, execution, and sustainment of military operations.