201 Ventures

Venture Capital·Madrid, Spain·$22M Fund I (2024); backed by NATO Innovation Fund

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.

Focus Areas

DefenceIntelligenceDual-Use TechCybersecurityHypersonicsBiosecurityMaritime Sensing

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Portfolio

1 company in our directory

Delian

Hiring

Defence Tech·Series A

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.