Backing the capabilities that secure our future

Introduction

Backing the capabilities that secure our future

The NIF invests in and champions deep tech, dual-use companies and funds addressing the Alliance’s most pressing capability needs across defence, security and resilience — from seed to Series B, and from investment to real-world deployment.


Direct Investments
20+
Specialist funds backed
10
Allied nations
24
Adoption Campaigns
100+
Co-investment attracted
€1.52B

In Action

From investment to real world capability

Defence

Tekever

Persistent Surveillance – from long-endurance UAS to deployed aerial intelligence

Need: Persistent intelligence in contested environments – without the risk and cost of manned operations.

Our role: Direct investment. Active adoption campaign connecting Tekever with Allied defence ministries and procurement agencies.

Outcome: 50,000+ flight hours. Deployed in Ukraine. Adopted across multiple NATO member nations.

Resilience

Aquark

Critical Infrastructure – from laboratory quantum sensing to Royal Navy deployment

Need: Navigation and detection capabilities that cannot be jammed, spoofed or disrupted by adversarial interference.

Our role: Direct investment. Adoption campaign with UK defence and critical infrastructure agencies.

Outcome: Quantum sensing technology tested by the UK Royal Navy. Defence and commercial procurement pipeline active.

Security

Isar Aerospace

Space – from European rocket startup to first private company to reach orbit

Need: Independent Allied access to space without dependence on non-Allied launch providers.

Our role: Direct investment. Support across European defence and institutional procurement ecosystems.

Outcome: First privately funded European rocket to reach orbit.

ARX Robotics Gereon RCS uncrewed ground vehicles Defence

ARX

Autonomy – deployment-ready, software-defined capabilities for Allied armed forces

Need: Legacy systems in European NATO nations are challenged by shrinking troop numbers, growing demand and fragile support chains. Replacing entire fleets is expensive and slow.

Our role: Direct investment. Support across NATO exercises, defence and institutional procurement ecosystems.

Outcome: Largest Western-built robotic military fleet in Ukraine and multiple Allied military procurement and industrial partnerships.

Resilience

iCOMAT

Advanced Manufacturing – only composite manufacturer in the world delivering steered fiber composites at scale

Need: Historically, composites were limited to straight lines. iCOMAT’s patented technology enables fibers to flow along curves – building lighter, stronger, more efficient structures for aerospace and automotive vehicles.

Our role: Direct investment. Support with industry partnerships and connections with military procurement networks.

Outcome: Industrial partnership with leading companies from across the Alliance.

Direct Portfolio

Our portfolio companies addressing the most urgent capability needs

  • Resilience

    2D Photonics

    Photonics for computing

    2D Photonics is a leader in graphene photonics transceivers, an advanced technology set to revolutionize artificial intelligence and cellular data transmission by improving energy efficiency, reducing latency, and increasing bandwidth. CamGraPhIC is a wholly owned subsidiary of 2D Photonics.

  • Defence

    ARX Robotics

    Ground autonomous mobility

    This company manufactures scalable robotic systems for mass deployment in defence, commercial and humanitarian applications to future-proof armed forces, and increase the safety and efficiency of workforces.

  • Resilience

    Aquark Technologies

    Quantum computing

    Aquark’s innovative quantum sensing technology is helping secure the critical infrastructure that underpins key sectors like defence, telecommunications and finance, which rely on precise signals for accurate positioning, navigation and timing.

  • Resilience

    Basecamp Research

    Predictive and engineering biology

    Basecamp Research is a frontier AI company developing medicines that reprogram the body to repair itself, combining foundation models trained on the world's largest proprietary biological dataset with technology for writing DNA sequences into cells, to design next-generation cell and gene therapies.

  • Resilience

    Fractile

    Novel compute architecture

    This AI company develops transformative computing technology to enhance collective AI capabilities by enabling the largest and most capable neural networks of today and tomorrow to run faster, more efficiently and sustainably.

  • Defence

    Greenjets

    Advanced drones and aerial UAVs

    Propulsion and aerospace technology company Greenjets shapes the future of automation, and intelligence, surveillance and recognition systems with its integrated portfolio of propulsion systems, aircraft platforms and launch technologies.

  • Resilience

    iCOMAT

    Critical- and high-performing materials

    This advanced composite manufacturing company delivers lighter, stronger and more sustainable structures for aerospace and automotive vehicles faster and more cost-effectively.

  • Resilience

    Inbiome

    Multi-omics

    Dutch molecular diagnostics company Inbiome is redefining microbiology testing by identifying bacteria in hours, therefore enabling faster treatment decisions, shorter hospital stays, and reduced healthcare costs.

  • Security

    Isar Aerospace

    Launch capabilities

    This company launches small and medium-sized satellites and satellite constellations into Earth’s orbit to ensure flexible and cost-efficient access to space for governments, institutions, and companies.

  • Defence

    Kelluu

    Advanced drones and aerial UAVs

    Kelluu is building NATO’s persistent aerial intelligence layer to strengthen the surveillance capabilities of Allied nations.

  • Defence

    Kongsberg Ferrotech

    Maritime unmanned vehicles

    Kongsberg Ferrotech is a pioneer in robotic solutions for the inspection, maintenance and repair (IMR) of critical offshore infrastructure – from oil and gas pipelines, to power and fibreoptic cables. With growing threats to subsea cables, energy pipelines, and maritime hubs, Kongsberg Ferrotech’s first-of-a-kind technology enables in-situ repair of submerged assets.

  • Defence

    Kraken

    Maritime unmanned vehicles

    Kraken Technology Group is a UK-based autonomous maritime company, which pioneers cost-effective, open-architecture USVs at sea or surveillance, force protection, and multi-domain operations. Kraken’s modular, scalable, production-ready platforms enhance naval capabilities at lower cost with reduced risk to personnel.

  • Security

    Kreios

    Satellites

    Spanish startup Kreios Space allows satellites to operate in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) – a region once considered unreachable, announces the largest ever European round in this space. By flying between 150 and 400 kilometers above the planet, Kreios’ satellites can capture images three times sharper than today’s systems and deliver broadband direct-to-device connectivity.

  • Resilience

    Laki Power

    Grid technology and smart grids

    Laki Power’s patented power-harvesting technology provides up to 300W of power directly from high-voltage lines, up to 100 times more onboard power than conventional inductive solutions. This enables operators to detect ice buildup and wildfire risk, monitor the physical condition and security of the line, and measure how much electricity it can safely carry under prevailing conditions.

  • Resilience

    Portal

    Predictive and engineering biology

    Portal Biotech is a pioneering biotechnology company, set to deliver the “holy grail” of full-length single-molecule protein sequencing. Their never-before-accomplished breakthrough promises transformative impact on drug discovery, precision medicine, and global biosecurity.

  • Security

    RevEng.AI

    Cybersecurity

    Cybersecurity company RevEng.AI verifies the security and integrity of AI-generated software by automating the analysis of binary software, and identifying hidden threats, malicious functionality, unexpected components, vulnerabilities, and abnormal release changes before software is shipped, purchased, or deployed.

  • Security

    SatVu

    Satellites

    SatVu is a space-based thermal intelligence company, whose imagery can unlock activity insights previously unavailable from commercial sources.

  • Security

    Simera Sense

    Satellites

    Simera Sense develops high resolution optical and multispectral cameras that provide crucial data about activities on the Earth’s surface as well as in the vicinity of critical assets in space. The cameras can be deployed across a range of earth observation and space situational awareness missions.

  • Security

    Space Forge

    Satellites

    A company that utilises the space environment to manufacture advanced semiconductor materials for critical infrastructure, ensuring more powerful and resilient capabilities across telecommunications, aerospace, and quantum.

  • Defence

    Stark

    Maritime unmanned vehicles

    STARK’s unmanned systems are designed to meet the realities of modern conflict: AI-enabled, software-defined, and ready for affordable production at scale.

  • Defence

    Tekever

    Advanced drones and aerial UAVs

    An AI-enabled Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) company that surveys ultra-wide areas and shares real-time data, which allows customers to act in a timely and efficient manner to avoid threats to human life, the environment and economy. This technology can help detect environmental threats such as oil spills, wildfires or flash flooding to gathering intelligence, and conduct search and rescue missions for defence and security purposes.

  • Security

    TERASi

    Radio frequency communications

    TERASi is a Swedish deep tech company and Europe's only end-to-end manufacturer of millimetre-wave hardware for tactical communications, delivering pocket-sized wireless systems that provide unjammable, undetectable, high-speed connectivity for armed forces operating in contested and infrastructure-denied environments.

  • Defence

    Tytan

    Counter-UAS and air defence effectors

    Tytan is building the Alliance’s next generation air defence by building AI-guided, low-cost interceptor drones, paired with a software-defined integration layer that connects directly into existing radar and command-and-control systems.

  • Resilience

    Uplift360

    Critical- and high-performing materials

    Uplift360 is an advanced materials start-up transforming how aerospace, defence and industrial sectors recover and reuse high-value composite waste.

Fund Portfolio

Our fund investments building local DSR ecosystems

  • 201 Ventures

    201 Ventures is a $22M first fund, managed by solo GP and former CIA officer Eric Slesinger. The fund’s mission is to advance freedom and autonomy in Europe. It typically invests in pre-seed and seed stage companies in the defence, security and resilience space.

  • Alpine Space Ventures

    An early-stage fund focused on investments in the space sector, leveraging over 50 years of industry experience. With a concentrated portfolio, the fund aims to empower select start ups to deliver key space-enabled capabilities.

  • BSV Ventures

    A leading early Pre-Seed and Seed stage investor specialising in DeepTech, life sciences, and dual-use technologies that enables early-stage innovators from the Baltics and the EU to build and internationally scale their businesses.

  • Expeditions

    Expeditions is a leading early-stage investor in European security that backs ambitious founders at the intersection of security and deep tech, across sectors such as cybersecurity, intelligence, autonomy, AI, quantum, privacy, communications and space.

  • Faber

    Based in Portugal, seeds deep tech in Southern Europe, with a focus on pre-seed and seed-stage startups in applied science & digital transformation. Faber invests in emerging technologies like AI, robotics, computational bio and chemistry, data infrastructure and novel computation.

  • Join Capital

    Berlin-based early-stage venture capital fund, focused on deep tech investments across industrial and enterprise tech.

  • OTB Ventures

    Early growth (Seed and Series A) deep tech fund originating from Central Europe, with investment focus in spacetech, enterprise automation & AI, cybersecurity, and fintech infrastructure.

  • Twin Track Ventures

    Twin Track Ventures is a deep tech fund, which invests and supports pre-seed and seed startups that serve both commercial, and defence and security customers. The fund targets investment sizes ranging from £150K to £500K with a focus on compute, communications, sensors and supply chain resilience.

  • Vsquared Ventures

    Invests in early stage deep tech companies that are building groundbreaking technologies addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges, to become global leaders out of Europe. Vsquared focuses on AI & next-gen software, energy transition, new computing and sensing, new space, robotics and manufacturing, and tech-bio

Contact

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