The 21 European investors funding NATO’s defence

NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) has announced the first 24 investors who are joining the NATO DIANA Capital Network (NDCN), among which 21 are European-based – including Bpifrance, DTCP, and Project A.

The NDCN is a community of NATO-aligned investors whose aim will be to help scale innovative solutions critical to Allied security.

“The NATO DIANA Capital Network is a critical enabler of the Alliance’s technological and defensive edge,” says NATO DIANA Acting Managing Director Jyoti Hirani-Driver. “By connecting NATO-aligned capital and promising innovators, the network helps the best technologies move to real-world capabilities in a secure and values-based ecosystem. We are proud to welcome the network’s first 24 investors and look forward to growing this community across the Alliance.”

The launch of the NATO DIANA Capital Network comes amid substantial capital deployment into European defence and dual-use technology in 2026.

EU-Startups has seen approximately €1.73 billion across ten company financings this year, led by Munich-based Quantum Systems’ €1 billion Series D, ICEYE’s €450 million Series F in Finland and London-based Kraken Technology Group’s €152.9 million Series B.

Smaller rounds have also backed missile manufacturing, autonomous aerial intelligence, drone-defence lasers, unmanned-systems software and strategic advanced materials.

Several members of the new network are already active across these financings: DTCP led investments in Kraken and Norway’s Six Robotics, while the NATO Innovation Fund participated in rounds for Kraken, Greenjets and Uplift360 and led Kelluu’s €15 million Series A.

Kelluu is also a direct link to DIANA, having completed two phases of the NATO accelerator before its 2026 financing.

Alongside company-level investment, EU-Startups has covered dedicated 2026 defence and resilience vehicles including DTCP’s €500 million Project Liberty, the €500 million E2D fund and Lakestar’s €262.2 million Resilience I Fund, pointing to a broader build-out of specialised capital for European defence and dual-use technologies.

The NDCN was launched in April 2026 and is a curated, NATO-screened community of trusted investors committed to backing the dual-use and DeepTech companies emerging from the DIANA programme.

Members are sovereign and sovereign-backed funds, leading venture capital firms, family offices, and institutional investors drawn from across the 32 NATO Allied nations. The NDCN provides its members with structured access to DIANA’s screened company pipeline, direct connections to fellow Alliance investors, invitations to closed convenings with NATO leadership and end-users, and a zero-fee model from DIANA itself.

The NDCN forms part of the wider NATO DIANA network, which finds and accelerates cutting-edge technologies to deliver battle-winning defence and security solutions for the Alliance, while fostering DeepTech innovation.

DIANA will welcome more investors in the NDCN towards the end of the year.

NDCN members will have opportunities to engage with DIANA-validated innovators; companies whose technologies have already been tested and de‑risked against NATO and Allied capability needs.

Divided by European country of origin, the 24 inaugural investors are: