Defense and resilience technology has reached a summit of all time 10% of all venture capital funds in Europe
The war in Ukraine served as an appeal for awakening to Europe, and defense technology has gone from a sector that most European VCs have not affected one of the best investment areas of deep technology.
This change is captured in the last Defense, Resilience and Security Report (DSR) in Europereleased with the NATO innovation fund (NIF), a multi-country 1 billion euros in initiative Make direct investments and fund support in this space.
The NIF portfolio includes startups such as the double -use drone company based in Portugal Tekever, which has raised A series of $ 74 million B in November. Overall, DSR startups obtained a record of $ 5.2 billion in venture capital last year, up 24% compared to 2023 and almost five times more than in 2019.
Despite the overvoltage, $ 5.2 billion is only twice as much capital as the US Defense Technology Company Andundil would have sought to raise Just for himself. However, it is also a 10% summit of all CR funding in Europe – an increase of 2.5 times in the past two years, according to the case.
“The appetite for defense, security and investment in starting resilience is not recognizable in Europe just a few years ago,” said its founder and CEO, Yoram Wijngarde, in a statement. “It follows a tendency continues to put capital and innovation to work on the basic strategic needs of Europe, via deep technologies.”
The DSR now representing a third of all venture capital funding in Europe, it is shown that the two overlap. Indeed, the DSR is wider than defense technology, with recognition that the supply chain, quantum technologies and energy can be just as critical for the sovereignty of the region.
This means that a larger range of startups now in the DSR pipeline, especially now that the increase in defense budgets makes the idea of selling a double -use technology in Europe less intimidating. Nif himself also hopes to help on this front; He recently appointed the British army veteran John Ridge as director of adoption.
Slow fragmentation and adoption apart, appetite VC has long been an obstacle, but that changes. The rise of double -use startups has contributed to this development: it has enabled general practitioners to adapt more easily to the sector within their mandate, which often prevents them from investing in pure defense technology, Not to mention weapons.
Pure Defense Tech represents only a smaller subset of overall funding, but this is also increasing; A previous report in the access room provided for a $ 1 billion. For 2024, an increase of five times since 2018. Conversely, a larger range of European VCs now makes investments adjacent to defense technology, with more than 850 active investors in at least one DSR agreement in Europe, according to the report.
This growth is particularly striking in Germany; With Munich and Berlin as the main hubs, he claimed first place in Europe in the financing of the DSR in 2024, followed by the United Kingdom and France. Ai Defense Tech Rising Star Helsing, which is based in Germany, collected some $ 487 million In a C series led by General Catalyst last year.
However, these adaptations take time. Defense Equity Facility (DEF), a fund of 175 million euros ($ 182 million) launched in January 2024 by the European Commission and the European Investment Fund (EIF), is only preparing to announce its first investments , because the European Investment Bank (EIF’s’s organization parental organization) had to update on double -use technology.
Of all the challenges to come, however, a lack of founders is not one of them, as confirmed by the recent defense hackathons across Europe. “Despite recent growth, defense, security and resilience technology remains a relatively emerging sector, but data shows an active business pipeline in the start -up phase that seek to change this,” Wijngardarde said.
