NATO Innovation Fund Invests in Uplift360, Marking First Investment in Luxembourg

February 6, 2026

Led by Extantia with significant contributions from the NATO Innovation Fund, Promus Ventures, and Fund F, this oversubscribed seed round will enable Uplift360 to foster additional partnerships with major industry players and expand scale of production.

To help tackle real supply-chain vulnerabilities, the NATO Innovation Fund has invested in Uplift360, an advanced materials start-up transforming how aerospace, defence and industrial sectors recover and reuse high-value composite waste.

The €7.4M round was led by Extantia, with significant contributions from the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Promus Ventures and Fund F. This constitutes a significant milestone for deep-tech dual-use investments in advanced material resilience.

This investment is a clear signal that Europe intends to lead in sustainable advanced-materials manufacturing. Our technology turns what is currently burned, buried or exported into a reliable, high-quality feedstock stream, strengthening supply-chains for primes, OEMs and government customers. With Extantia and the NATO Innovation Fund behind us, we’re now positioned to scale with urgency.

Sam Staincliffe

CEO and co-Founder, Uplift360

Advanced materials like carbon fibre and aramids underpin defence, aerospace and manufacturing and are critical to Europe’s ability to revitalise industrial capabilities more broadly. However, these materials currently face severe supply-chain bottlenecks due to geopolitical pressure and limited virgin fibre availability and, as they are built to last, contribute to a fast-growing global waste stream.

Uplift360 can help address this challenge through its proprietary technology, a chemical process that recovers advanced composite materials, resulting in the same quality output as inputted. Unlike recycling, Uplift360’s regeneration process is non-degenerative, giving them a true second life.

This seed funding will scale Uplift360’s proprietary technologies, enabling the regeneration of hard-to-treat advanced composite materials such as carbon fibre, aramid and hybrid laminates from aerospace, defence, wind energy and high-performance automotive sectors.

Durable, high-quality advanced materials are of strategic importance to securing the future of NATO nations. Uplift360’s platform is exactly the kind of dual-use innovation Europe needs — tackling a real supply-chain vulnerability, reducing carbon emissions and bolstering the resilience of the sectors that underpin European industrialisation and competitiveness.

Sander Verbrugge

Partner, NATO Innovation Fund

Uplift360 already works with major industrial partners such as Babcock on Eurofighter Typhoon end-of-life materials recovery, Leonardo on turning Merlin helicopter blades into UxV components, and a project with Rolls-Royce. As part of Europe’s growing ecosystem of dual-use and strategic-materials innovators with a strong presence in both the UK and Luxembourg, Uplift360 is incredibly well-positioned to secure and strengthen supply chains across Europe.

I welcome the first investment by the Nato Innovation Fund, domiciled in Luxembourg, in a national startup operating in the strategic capability of materials recycling for defence and in doing so contribute to the European supply chain resilience. This highlights the innovative spirit of the Luxembourg defence technological and industrial base.

Yuriko Backes

Minister of Defence, Luxembourg

Uplift360’s work in advanced materials regeneration will not only help to bolster national security but will also help drive up sustainable economic growth. This work, which was initially backed by innovation funding from the MOD, demonstrates our support for dual-use innovations from SMEs that can benefit our Armed Forces.

Luke Pollard MP

Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, UK