Industry Briefing · UK Defence Tech
UK Defence Technology
The UK's defence technology sector is experiencing a period of significant growth, driven by rising geopolitical tensions and renewed government commitment to defence spending. British and international companies are developing autonomous systems, advanced materials, electronic warfare capabilities, and maritime technologies that are reshaping the industry — backed by a growing cohort of specialist investors and a government increasingly focused on sovereign capability.
UK Defence Tech · 8 companies
Companies
Featured
Arondite
Arondite is a London-based defence technology company building foundational software and AI to power the autonomous age. The company develops a platform that connects disparate autonomous systems, such as drones, ground robots, and AI-powered sensors from any manufacturer, giving human operators clearer oversight and safer operational control. Founded by former Palantir and Helsing veteran Will Blyth and ex-BAE Systems engineer Rob Underhill, the company addresses the growing need for interoperability as militaries adopt a proliferation of new autonomous hardware across the battlefield.
Grayscale AI
Grayscale AI develops neuromorphic AI systems that mimic human neural networks for edge computing applications, delivering up to 500 times greater energy efficiency than traditional computing architectures for complex real-time problem-solving.
Kraken Technology
London
Kraken Technology develops high-performance autonomous maritime vessels using lightweight composite materials and modular design, delivering scalable production-ready platforms for littoral, surface, and subsurface defence and security operations.
Overwatch
Overwatch Group designs, engineers, and manufactures unmanned aerial systems and precision strike munitions, delivering agile British defence technology including loitering drones and kinetic payloads for military and security operations.
Delian
Delian Alliance Industries is a Greek and UK-based defence technology company building autonomous systems for NATO and allied forces. Founded by former Apple robotics engineer Dimitrios Kottas, the company takes a vertically integrated approach, developing hardware, sensor fusion, autonomy software, and strike platforms under one roof. Its products include the Lambda Autonomous Surveillance Tower (LAST), which uses video and thermal feeds to detect and track surface targets without GPS, and a pipeline of concealed sea drones. Originally launched as Lambda Automata, the company rebranded and has deployed solar-powered surveillance towers along Greek borders for security and wildfire detection. Delian is headquartered in London with offices in Athens and is positioning itself as a European defence prime for the autonomous warfare era.
Helsing
Munich
Helsing is a Munich-based defence technology company focused on building AI-powered software and autonomous systems for military applications across air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains. The company has rapidly scaled from its 2021 founding to become one of Europe's most valuable defence tech startups, valued at €12B following a €600M Series D led by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek's Prima Materia. Helsing has delivered thousands of strike drones to Ukraine, acquired aircraft manufacturer Grob Aircraft, and unveiled the CA-1 Europa autonomous combat aerial vehicle. It is a key player in European technological sovereignty and defence AI.
Anduril
California
Anduril Industries is a defence technology company that builds autonomous systems and AI-powered platforms for national security applications. Founded in Irvine, California by Palmer Luckey (co-founder of Oculus VR) and former Palantir executives, Anduril takes a Silicon Valley approach to defence contracting, investing its own capital in R&D rather than relying on traditional cost-plus government contracts. Its core product, Lattice OS, is an open operating system that uses sensor fusion, computer vision, and machine learning to connect autonomous hardware across air, land, sea, and space domains. The company's portfolio includes autonomous drones (Ghost, Fury, Roadrunner), counter-UAS systems, and the Ghost Shark autonomous submarine. Anduril doubled its revenue to roughly $1 billion in 2024 and is building Arsenal-1, a major autonomous weapons manufacturing facility in Ohio.
Chaos Industries
Los Angeles
CHAOS Industries is a Los Angeles-based defence technology company that develops advanced radar, sensor, communication, and detection systems for national security applications. The company's flagship platform, Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN), delivers high-performance sensing and electronic effects across land, sea, and air domains. Its commercial radar product, Vanquish, provides early warning and tracking against drones, missiles, and aircraft. Founded by former executives of defence tech firm Epirus, CHAOS has grown rapidly in the counter-drone and critical infrastructure space. The company was valued at $4.5 billion following its latest funding round in late 2025, positioning it as one of the fastest-growing defence technology startups in the US.
Backing Defence Tech · 23 investors
Investors
IQ Capital
Founded in 2005, IQ Capital is a leading European deep tech venture capital firm based in Cambridge and London. Its general partners, Kerry Baldwin, Max Bautin, Simon Hirtzel, and Ed Stacey, have worked together for over 20 years. The firm leads rounds from pre-Seed to Series A and follows on via dedicated growth funds with up to £30m per company. Since inception it has partnered with over 200 deep tech founders, attracting $1.4 billion in follow-on capital to its portfolio. Notable investments include Thought Machine (core banking unicorn backed from Seed), Speechmatics, and Nyobolt, with exits to Apple, Meta, Google, Siemens, Qualcomm, and Oracle.
Bloc Ventures
Founded in 2013 by Bruce Beckloff and David Leftley, Bloc Ventures is a specialist deep tech investment company based in London. Unlike traditional VC funds, Bloc operates as a permanent capital company with an evergreen structure, enabling long term support without fund lifecycle constraints. The team comprises engineers and former enterprise leaders from Arm and Vodafone with £500m+ in collective deep tech investments and £5bn+ in exits. Notable portfolio companies include AccelerComm, Crypta Labs, and YellowDog, with exits including EVRYTHNG (acquired by Digimarc).
SwisscomVentures
Founded in 2007 as the corporate venture arm of Swisscom AG, Switzerland's leading telecoms provider, Swisscom Ventures invests in growth companies with emerging technologies of strategic relevance to Swisscom's core business. The firm typically invests from Seed to Series C with initial tickets of $2m to $10m, plus reserves for follow on rounds. Since inception it has invested in over 80 startups, achieving 28 profitable acquisitions, 2 IPOs, and 4 unicorns after an average holding period of six years. Notable portfolio companies include Scandit, Beekeeper, Aircall, Fastly, and Quantenna Communications.
Amadeus
Co-founded in 1997 by Hermann Hauser (co-founder of Acorn Computers/Arm) and Anne Glover, Amadeus Capital Partners is one of the UK's leading deep tech venture capital firms. Based in Cambridge and London with offices in Oxford, San Francisco, and São Paulo, the firm has backed over 200 companies since inception. Its portfolio has produced 5 unicorns, 5 IPOs, and 70 acquisitions, with profitable exits returning up to 18.9x (average 3.5x). Notable investments include Paragraf, PolyAI, Unlikely AI, and Darktrace. The firm also partners with APEX Ventures on an €80m European deep tech fund.
Eclipse
Founded in 2015 by Lior Susan, Eclipse is a venture capital firm focused on transforming essential physical industries through technology. The firm operates a distinctive 'Venture Equity' model, co-founding new companies with senior operators from organisations like Tesla, Amazon Robotics, and Northvolt. Eclipse invests from pre-seed to Series D and backs companies integrating hardware, software, and data across industries representing 75% of global GDP. Notable portfolio companies include VulcanForms, Bright Machines, Augury, Enovix, and Cellares. The firm also partnered with Mayo Clinic to create Nucleus RadioPharma.
Index Ventures
Founded in 1996 in Geneva by Neil Rimer, David Rimer, and Giuseppe Zocco, Index Ventures is a transatlantic venture capital firm operating a 'one fund, one team' model across offices in San Francisco, London, Geneva, and New York. The firm backs founders from seed through to IPO, having invested in 662 companies over 26 years with 65 unicorns, 23 decacorns, and 57 publicly traded companies in its portfolio. Notable investments include Figma, Revolut, Roblox, Scale AI, Wiz, Dropbox, and Etsy. In 2024 Index raised $2.3B in new funds ($800M venture, $1.5B growth), alongside its existing $300M Origin seed fund.
Concept Ventures
Founded in 2018 by Reece Chowdhry (originally as RLC Ventures), Concept Ventures is Europe's largest dedicated pre-seed fund. The firm invests up to $1.5m in first rounds, leading over 90% of deals, and is proudly sector agnostic. Fund I is a top 1% performing fund for its vintage globally, with 100% of portfolio companies that went to market successfully closing their next round. Portfolio companies have collectively raised over $450m in follow on funding. The standout investment is ElevenLabs (voice AI unicorn valued at $6.6B), backed at pre-seed and now representing a 400x return. Other notable investments include VSim, Arondite, and Anam.
Accel
Founded in 1983 by Arthur Patterson and Jim Swartz, Accel is a global venture capital firm investing from seed through growth stage across the US, Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. The firm has backed over 1,170 companies producing 103 unicorns, 47 IPOs, and 381 acquisitions. Its 2005 investment of $12.7m for 10% of Facebook became one of the most lucrative VC bets in history, worth $6.6B at IPO. Other notable investments include Spotify, Slack, CrowdStrike, Atlassian, UiPath, Flipkart, and Freshworks. In 2024/25 Accel raised $650m for its sixth European fund (AI and cybersecurity focus) and $650m for India/Southeast Asia.
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Founded in 2000 by four enterprise founders from Stanford University, Lightspeed is a global multi-stage venture capital firm and pioneer in AI investing, having made its first AI investment in 2012. The firm has backed 957 companies across 28 years, producing 101 unicorns, 38 IPOs, and 257 acquisitions. In December 2025 Lightspeed closed a record $9B fundraise, its largest ever, bringing total AUM to over $40B. With $5.5B deployed across 165 AI native companies, Lightspeed is one of the most active AI investors globally. Notable portfolio companies include Snap, Anthropic, Databricks, Wiz, Rubrik, Affirm, Anduril, and Mistral.
Prima Materia
Founded in 2021 by Spotify CEO Daniel Ek and early Spotify investor Shakil Khan, Prima Materia is a private investment vehicle backed by Ek's personal pledge of €1B over a decade into European technology companies. Described as a '100 year project', the firm takes a builder and active owner approach to a small number of long term bets. Prima Materia led the €600M Series D for defence AI company Helsing (valued at $12B) and is an original backer of Neko Health (co-founded by Ek). Other investments include Northvolt, H2 Green Steel, and Pale Blue Dot. The firm focuses on foundational technologies with lasting societal impact.
General Catalyst
Founded in 2000 by Joel Cutler and David Fialkow, General Catalyst is a global venture capital firm investing from seed to growth stage. Named the most active VC investor between 2020 and 2023 by PitchBook, the firm has backed 871 companies producing 90 unicorns, 29 IPOs, and 203 acquisitions. In 2024 GC closed $8B in new capital including $6B for Fund XII, with 25% allocated to Europe. The firm has expanded globally through mergers with La Famiglia (Europe) and Venture Highway (India), and uniquely acquired Summa Health for $485M as a proving ground for its healthtech portfolio. Notable investments include Stripe, Airbnb, HubSpot, Snap, Anduril, Helsing, Mistral, and Canva.
Founders Fund
Founded in 2005 by Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek, Founders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm known for its contrarian investment philosophy focused on revolutionary technologies and hard scientific breakthroughs. The firm was the first institutional investor in SpaceX and Palantir Technologies, and an early backer of Facebook. Its portfolio includes notable companies such as Airbnb, Stripe, Anduril, Ramp, Neuralink, and Nubank. In 2025 the firm closed a $4.6 billion growth fund, its largest raise to date, signalling a shift towards concentrated late stage bets.
Sands Capital
Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Sands Capital is an independent staff-owned investment firm operating an integrated platform spanning venture capital, growth equity, and public equity. The firm manages $56B in client assets across institutions and fund sponsors in over 30 countries. Its venture and growth equity arm invests from Series A through to public listing with individual round participation of $10m to $150m. The venture portfolio has produced 11 unicorns, 15 IPOs, and 24 acquisitions, with notable investments including DoorDash, Slack, Samsara, and PolyAI. Sands Capital takes a long term, high conviction approach with deep domain expertise in technology and life sciences.
Valor Equity Partners
Founded in 1995 by Antonio Gracias, Valor Equity Partners is a Chicago based growth focused private equity firm renowned for its deep operational involvement with portfolio companies through its 29 person Scale Group. Valor was an early and long standing backer of both Tesla and SpaceX, and its portfolio of 301 companies includes Anduril, Neuralink, Reddit, xAI, Zipline, and WEKA. Fund VI closed at $2.35B (oversubscribed beyond the $2B target), with an additional $1B in co-investment commitments. The firm also manages Valor Siren Ventures in partnership with Starbucks, Nestlé, Target, and Marriott for food, retail, and sustainability investments.
8VC
Founded in 2015 by Joe Lonsdale (co-founder of Palantir, Addepar, and OpenGov), 8VC is a venture capital firm investing across multiple stages with a thesis centred on an 'American industrial renaissance'. The firm operates a distinctive Build programme, dedicating 25–30% of capital to co-founding startups through an internal venture studio. Its portfolio includes Anduril, Oculus, Guardant Health, Flexport, Joby Aviation, and Illumio. 8VC relocated from San Francisco to Austin in 2020 and has a team of 115 across the US and India. The firm is currently raising Fund VI, targeting nearly $1B.
New Enterprise Associates
Founded in 1977 by Dick Kramlich, Chuck Newhall, and Frank Bonsal Jr, NEA is one of the world's largest and longest running venture capital firms with a distinctive dual practice model spanning technology and healthcare under one roof. Over nearly five decades the firm has made 2,781 investments and completed 1,188 exits. In 2025 NEA deployed over $5.8B across 70 companies, backing landmark rounds for ElevenLabs, Synthesia, Clio, and Wonder. Its portfolio includes globally significant companies such as Databricks, ByteDance, Cloudflare, and numerous public biotech successes. NEA invests from seed through to growth equity, with later stage cheques of $50m to $300m+.
Air Street Capital
Founded in 2019 by Nathan Benaich (PhD, Cambridge), Air Street Capital is a specialist AI focused venture fund operating a solo-GP model. Benaich co-authors the widely read annual 'State of AI Report', positioning the fund as a thought leader in the space. Fund II ($121M, 2023) was anchored by Spotify founder Daniel Ek and Google DeepMind's Jeff Dean. The portfolio of 47 companies includes 8 unicorns such as Wayve, Synthesia, and Adept (acquired by Amazon). Other notable investments include Profluent (programmable biology), V7 (AI data engine), and Black Forest Labs. Check sizes range from $100K to $5M at pre-seed and seed.
Marathon Venture Capital
Founded in 2017 in Athens, Marathon Venture Capital is a seed stage fund backing ambitious Greek and European founders building world class technology companies. The firm typically leads seed rounds with €1m+ cheques for 15–20% equity, with about half of investments originating internationally from across Europe and the US. Fund I is described as a top percentile performer globally in realised returns. Portfolio companies have attracted follow on capital from Bessemer, Bain, 83North, Insight, and Index. Notable investments include Causaly (AI for biomedical research), Hack The Box (cybersecurity training), Augmenta (agritech), and Lenses.io (exited). LPs include the EIF, EBRD, and HDBI.
201 Ventures
Founded in 2023 by Eric Slesinger, a former CIA officer and In-Q-Tel investor, 201 Ventures is an early stage fund dedicated to advancing freedom and autonomy in Europe. It is notably the first fund to receive institutional investment from the NATO Innovation Fund, the world's first multi-sovereign VC fund backed by 24 NATO allies. Slesinger also founded the European Defense Investor Network and organises the European Defense Tech Summit. The portfolio of eight investments includes Delian Alliance Industries (autonomous threat detection, Greece), Ionlace (Sweden), Deep Earth (Germany), and Isembard (UK), spanning hypersonics, biosecurity, subsurface mapping, maritime sensing, and Arctic autonomy.
HCVC
Founded in 2018 by Alexis Houssou, Jerry Yang, and Aymerik Renard, HCVC (formerly Hardware Club) is an early stage venture capital firm investing in companies automating and digitising the physical world. The firm operates a dual model: a VC fund alongside a selective global community of 600+ hardtech startups (sub-7% acceptance rate) offering shared manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain resources through 200 partners including Foxconn and Amazon Launchpad. Fund I ($50M) backed 50 companies; Fund II ($75M, 2023) targets 40 investments. Notable LPs include John Elkann (Stellantis/Ferrari), Toto Wolff (Mercedes F1), and Albert Wenger (USV). Portfolio companies include Cowboy, Renaissance Fusion, Automata, and Span.
SAAB
Founded in 1937 and headquartered in Stockholm, Saab is a Swedish defence and security company with 27,270 employees, SEK 79B revenue (2025), and a $40B market capitalisation. Through Saab Ventures (est. 2001), its corporate venture arm, Saab identifies, invests in, and develops innovative technology companies with a four to seven year exit horizon. The Ventures portfolio spans 10 active companies with 23 investments to date, including Heart Aerospace and spin-offs like C3 Technologies (3D mapping) and Minesto (ocean energy). Saab also makes strategic investments directly, notably backing Helsing (defence AI) and acquiring Blue Bear Systems (autonomous swarms) and CrowdAI (AI/ML). Saab is a key investor and partner in European defence technology.
Microsoft
Founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, Microsoft is a $3T+ technology company and one of the world's largest corporate venture investors. Through M12 (est. 2016, formerly Microsoft Ventures), its corporate VC arm led by Michelle Gonzalez, Microsoft invests $150m to $275m annually from its balance sheet via an evergreen fund structure. M12 has invested in 252+ companies producing 16 unicorns, 4 IPOs, and 57 acquisitions, including Cloudflare and Innovaccer. In 2023 M12 shifted to a thesis-driven model aligned with Microsoft's AI, cloud, and cybersecurity priorities. Separately, Microsoft made a landmark $13B cumulative investment in OpenAI and committed $100B to the Stargate AI infrastructure project.
9Yards Capital
Founded in 2018 by David Fischer, Theo Osborne, and George Osborne (former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer 2010–16), 9Yards Capital is a growth stage technology investment firm focused on critical infrastructure for foundational industries. The firm differentiates itself through a heavyweight Strategic Intelligence Council of former heads of state, defence officials, and national security leaders. George Osborne's policy background, including devising the UK's open banking regime and FCA sandbox, positions the firm to help companies navigate heavily regulated markets. The portfolio of 46 companies includes 13 unicorns and 4 IPOs, with notable holdings including Robinhood, Carta, Coinbase, Toast, Anduril, Chainalysis, and Remote.
Defence Tech · 27 roles
Open Roles
Software Engineer
Deployed Software Engineer
UAV Operations Engineer (UK)
AI Research Engineer
AI Research Engineer - AI Safety
AI Research Engineer - Computer Vision
AI Research Engineer - Reinforcement Learning
AI Research Engineer - Robotics, Control, RL
Analog/Digital R&D Electronic Engineer - Physical Products
CNC Specialist - Physical Products
Software Engineer, Modelling & Simulation, Advanced Capabilities
Software Engineer Visual Simulation, Advanced Capabilities
Site Reliability Engineer
Senior Program Manager, PMO
Senior Program Manager, Connected Warfare - UK
Senior Mission Software Engineer, Connected Warfare
Multinational Digital Infrastructure - Senior Cloud Engineer
Multinational Digital Infrastructure - DevOps Engineer
Mission Operations Engineer
Lead Mission Software Engineer, Connected Warfare
International Trade Compliance Lead EMEA
Electrical Engineer
EHS Associate Manager
Deployment Operations Lead, International
Continuing Airworthiness Manager
Teamcenter / PLM Administrator
PLM Administrator
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