Investment in European defence tech has exploded in the last few years – and it’s still growing. Capital raised by European Defense, Security and Resilience (DSR) ventures hit $40b in H1, blowing past the $35b raised in 2025 in just half the time.
In 2025, the UK led the Defence Tech boom in Europe with $2.9b raised, with Germany close behind at $2.1b; in 2026, Helsing’s $1.8b Series E and Quantum Systems’s $1.1b Series D, both based in Munich, dominate the landscape. In 2026 investment so far, the UK trails Germany by a fair margin with Open Cosmos’s $350m Series C and Cambridge Aerospace’s $300m Series C at the top.
Certainly on the surface, it does not look like the European defence tech ecosystem is lacking in capital – yet it belies a more difficult time for early-stage and scale-up defence tech ventures. Read more to see who's investing in European Defence Tech, which Defence Tech Ventures to watch, and our analysis on the investment landscape.
In this article: The most active investors in European defence tech in 2026, the most recent European defence tech deals under $100m, and the latest trends in European defence tech.
Most Active Investors in European Defence Tech 2026
The most active investors in European defence tech by number of deals in 2026 so far.
- Lakestar – 21 – Switzerland
- MITS Capital – 10 – Ukraine
- OTB Ventures – 8 – Netherlands, Poland
- NATO Innovation Fund – 6 – Netherlands
- Front Ventures – 6 – Sweden
- Expeditions – 5 – Poland
- Freedom Fund – 4 – USA
- Hede Capital – 4 – Sweden
- Gungnir Capital – 4 – Sweden
The Megarounds That Defined 2026
The largest European defence tech rounds raised in 2026 so far.
- Helsing, Munich: Series E, $1.8b
- Quantum Systems, Munich: Series D, $1.2b
- Stark, Berlin: Series C, $570m
- Multiverse Computing, Donostia/San Sebastian: Series C, $570m
- ICEYE, Helsinki: Series F, $520m
- Open Cosmos, London: Series C, $350m
- Cambridge Aerospace, Cambridge: Series C, $300m
- Harmattan AI, Paris: Series B, $200m
- Kraken Technology, London: Series B, $175m
Most Recent Deals (<$100m)
Everyone hears about the megadeals – who hasn’t heard of Daniel Ek’s Helsing? – so here are the ones flying under the radar.
September 2026
- HyImpulse (Series A extension, €50m) – Germany – Rockets
Lead investors: JOIN Capital and Ace Capital Partners
Participating Investors: North Ventures, BW-Capital, Bayern Kapital, German Aerospace Center, Campus Founders Ventures - INLEAP Photonics (Seed, €20m) – Germany – Lasers for C-UAS
Lead investor: UVC Partners
Participating Investors: HTGF, Balnord, Sentris Capital, Scale Capital
August 2026
- Oshen (Series A, $5m) – UK – Marine Robotics
Lead investor: Lunar Ventures
Participating investors: AlbionVC, Twin Track Ventures, Concept Ventures - Neuraspace (Series B, €6m + Grant, €9.6m) – Portugal – Space-enabled defence
Investors: Lince Capital, Explorer Investments, Armilar Venture Partners; Grant awarded by Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRRP)
July 2026
- ORiS (Pre-Seed, €4.5m + Grant, €0.5m) – Italy – Laser-based wireless power transmission
Lead investors: Earlybird Venture Capital, Pitchdrive
Participating investors: Galaxia, Vento, Piemonte Next Fund - FuVeX (Seed, €3m) – Spain – Drone commercialisation
Lead investor: Sodena
Participating investors: SEGO Venture, Izertis Ventures
One to Watch
Uforce is a venture that specialises in unmanned systems – not just aerial, but for land and sea as well. Uforce was co-founded by Oleksiy Honcharuk, former prime minister of Ukraine, with Ukrainian entrepreneur Oleg Rogynskyy at the helm.
In March this year, they raised $50m in seed funding led by Lakestar and Shield Capital at a valuation of above $1b, and are now in talks to raise $500m at a valuation of around $5b in a Series A led by Valor Equity Partners.
Latest Trends – Building Alongside Investing
Hybrid models of backing emerging SDR technologies that combine traditional venture capital alongside more hands-on building seems to be a new trend in the sector – here are two recent examples.
- In August 2026, Mykhailo Fedorov, a former defence minister of Ukraine, announced a new defence tech investment fund that combines investment into Ukrainian defence tech with creating new companies around critical technologies, including battlefield robotics, jet-powered interceptor drones, and low-cost AI missiles. Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, is the first investor in the fund.
- Also in August, GALLOS Technologies raised $50m in an open investment round. GALLOS combines venture investment together with company building in early-stage DSR ventures. Ventures in GALLOS’s portfolio include StirlingX, a data intelligence company providing drone inspection services, and Second Front, a defence software solutions company.
Europe Still in Dire Need of Early-Stage and Scale-up Funding
European defence tech investment trend comparison by round size, 2025 and 2026.
While megaround ($250m+) value in European defence tech capital raise rounds jumped more than sixfold from 2025 to 2026, seed round investment in the sector fell from $50m to $36m, on track to be 20% down from the year prior.
Defence tech founders in the Fox and Lion community regularly cite access to scale-up capital as one of the barriers to growth – and they’re not alone. The “Valley of Death” is a well-documented phenomenon when it comes to UK scale-ups, and it reinforces the fear that the UK is becoming an “IP farm” for the rest of the world.
Until scale-up capital can catch up with the scale of the ambition being shown by Europe's defence tech founders, the ecosystem will continue to crown only the handful of unicorns - and leave behind the rest to cross the valley of death on their own.
Suki Park is the founding partner of Fox and Lion. She has worked across venture dealflow and fund operations at a UK fund of funds focused on deep tech, and holds a JD from Seoul National University specialising in international trade law. The views expressed here are her own.
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