The technology industry is awash with start-up entrepreneurs who insist that their product is life-changing and globally significant, when the reality is far less exciting. The opposite is the case at Sypaq Systems, a 31- year-old Melbourne-based engineering and technology company, which has created ingenious drone technology that has become an essential part of Ukraine’s attempts to repel the Russian army.

Sypaq is the overall winner of the 2023 AFR Boss Most Innovative Companies Award, for its Corvo Precision Payload Delivery System (PPDS), an unmanned aircraft system that takes the IKEA flatpack principle and applies it to the battlefield.