It may have taken VCs a while to get comfortable with defence tech, but the moment is certainly here: 2025 is all about defence as Europe strives to up its spending and rearm the continent.
Once a controversial topic, more VCs are raising defence-focused funds or allocating money from their existing generalist vehicles to back startups ranging from maritime technology protecting the continent’s waters to autonomous drones and even weapons tech.
It’s become a downright buzzy sector, and VCs are starting to put real money to work: two drones startups, German Quantum Systems and Portuguese Tekever, became unicorns earlier this year; meanwhile AI defence firm Helsing recently raised a whopping €600m in funding, pushing its valuation to €12bn — and making it one of the most valuable European startups, full-stop.
The number of first-time European defence-focused funds is growing, too; at least three new funds working on defence have announced a first or final close so far in 2025.
Sifted compiled a list of defence-focused funds in Europe in 2025 — including those which are generalist but do a lot of defence deals, as well as those which are strictly defence-only. Know of a fund we’ve missed? Send us an email.
D3
HQ: Kyiv
Fund size: $30m+
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
D3 backs early-stage defence startups in Ukraine. Its first fund launched in 2023 with a target of $30m; managing partner Eveline Buchatskiy says the fund is nearing its final close and that it will be oversubscribed for its $30m goal.
D3 backs startups focused on defence capabilities across military hardware and software, including AI and cybersecurity. It backs startups in Ukraine and its allies, and writes initial cheques of $300k with the possibility to invest $750k in follow-on investments.
Some of its notable deals include US- and Ukraine-based Swarmer, which is developing an AI-powered mission control centre to coordinate drone swarms; and Ukrainian autonomous drones for landmine detection company Ailand Systems.
NATO Innovation Fund
HQ: Amsterdam
Fund size: €1bn
Stage: All
The NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) is backed by 24 NATO allies to invest in deeptech and defence startups in NATO countries. The fund says it leads initial investments up to €15m, and backs both startups and VC funds.
The fund has seen a lot of turmoil and turnover since it launched two years ago, losing three of its original five founding partners in the last year, and accumulating allegations of conflicts of interest and disorganisation, as detailed in a recent Sifted investigation.
However some of the fund’s notable deals include German spacetech Isar Aerospace, UK-based new materials company iCOMAT as well as funds including UK-based Twin Track Ventures, German deeptech VC Vsquared Ventures and CEE-focused VC OTB Ventures.
Project A
HQ: Berlin
Fund size: €325m
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
German VC Project A is a generalist firm, but it’s become known for its defence bets, like German autonomous robotics startup ARX Robotics and German drones unicorn Quantum Systems. General partner Uwe Horstmann, a reserve officer in the German Armed Forces, has also been an early, and vocal, advocate for defence tech.
Project A just raised its fifth and largest fund yet, at €325m. The team writes cheques of €1m-8m into up to 20 investments per year. It’s eyeing a variety of sectors to invest the new fund — including defence tech.
201 Ventures
HQ: Madrid
Fund size: $22m
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
Founded and run by former CIA officer Eric Slesinger, 201 Ventures backs dual-use startups working in areas like maritime tech and high-precision manufacturing. Though the fund, and its founder Slesinger, keep a low profile, some of its notable deals so far include Swedish startup Polar Mist, which makes maritime drones and is building an optical, GPS-free positioning system that it says doesn’t drift over time to prevent navigational errors; and British manufacturing startup Isembard.
Twin Track Ventures
HQ: London
Fund size: £10 target, closed over 30%
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
Nicola Sinclair, who spent nearly 20 years in the UK’s Royal Air Force, founded Twin Track Ventures in 2024. Sinclair told Sifted the fund, which she is still raising, is focused on dual-use and deeptech, investing in pre-seed and seed startups in areas like compute, communications, remote sensing and supply chain resilience. It’s also focused on NATO countries, Australia, the UK and US geographies.
SmartCap
HQ: Tallinn
Fund size: €100m
Stage: Seed to growth
The Estonian state-backed LP recently launched an €100m fund for investing in defence and weapons tech. It backs both defence startups as well as VCs focused on the sector, with the caveat that it will only write cheques to funds that don’t have any restrictions on backing weapons.
The defence fund writes cheques of up to €20m into VC funds and up to €10m into defence tech startups. SmartCap doesn’t have any public investments from its new defence fund yet.
Keen Venture Partners
HQ: Amsterdam
Fund size: €40m committed, target €125m
Stage: Seed to Series B
Keen Venture Partners, previously a more generalist investor, is currently raising €125m for a new defence-focused fund, which is yet to do a first close. It will invest in around 20 to 25 European startups from seed to Series B, working in areas such as cyber, defence, robotics, AI, autonomous systems and spacetech. The EIF announced a €40m commitment to the fund in May — its first official defence fund investment.
The firm has backed defence startups like Amsterdam-based Avalor.AI, which enables unmanned systems across different domains like air and sea to coordinate on operations.
Osney Capital
HQ: London
Fund size: £50m
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
The British VC announced its debut £50m fund in April, to invest in early-stage cybersecurity startups. Its backers include public fund British Business Bank and US-based defence-focused fund-of-funds IronGate. Osney Capital plans to invest in 30 startups writing cheques of between £250k and £2.5m.
The fund is also accredited by the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), meaning it has undergone significant government security vetting and demonstrated high-level technical capabilities.
Omnes Capital
HQ: Paris
Fund size: €112m closed, €200m target
Stage: Early growth
Though the French VC and PE firm doesn’t consider itself a “defence fund”, Omnes Capital is allocating money to big defence bets like Quantum Systems, ARX Robotics and Franco-German spacetech The Exploration Company. The firm just raised €112m in a first close for its second deeptech fund, which will back startups working on things like quantum, defence, AI for industrial use cases and decarbonisation. It will back up to 25 startups.
Managing partner Michel de Lempdes says the team wants to invest in dual-use startups with a direct line to governments: “We don’t want to invest in companies selling to these big, large corporations like Airbus [and] Thales” because they take a chunk of the margins, he recently told Sifted.
Superangel
HQ: Tallinn
Fund size: €50m target
Stage: Pre-seed and seed
The Estonia-based firm recently launched a defence-focused fund, Archangel, run by Nicholas Nelson. He tells Sifted it is a €50m target fund and Superangel’s third (Nelson declined to disclose how much the firm has raised so far but says it plans to have a first close this autumn). The fund says it backs “defence-first founders solving hard national security problems, not dual-use hedge bets.”
So far, some of the firm’s notable defence bets include UK-based unmanned surface and subsea vehicles startup Kraken Technology; and UK-based Labrys, which provides corporate, government and military and humanitarian users with a workforce management platform to verify, support and pay teams around the world.
Expeditions Fund
HQ: Warsaw
Fund size: Undisclosed
Stage: Pre-seed to Series A
The Polish fund invests in dual-use startups in defence, autonomy, AI, quantum, privacy, communication solutions, space and cybersecurity. It writes cheques of between €250k-5m, and has backed startups like French startup Comand AI, which is building an AI software platform that military officers can use to more efficiently plan and strategise operations; and Munich-based Alpine Eagle, which is building a system to detect, classify and intercept unmanned air systems like drones.
MD One Ventures
HQ: London and Luxembourg
Fund size: Closed between €10-20m
Stage: Pre-seed to Series A
The British firm invests in deeptech, dual use and national security startups. So far it has made 15 investments, says founder and managing partner William McManners. Some of its investments include UK-based Labrys; and UK-founded data management startup Valarian, which was started by a Palantir alumnus.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/european-defence-tech-funds/
