Defence tech startups in Europe are projected to raise more than €2 billion this year, and VCs are building out war chests to back them. In one of the latest developments, Keen Venture Partners has completed the first close of its new European defence and security technology fund, raising over €150 million for a fund that will eventually close out at €200 million.
With offices in Amsterdam and London, Keen will mainly focus on Series A rounds, with some seed and Series B investments around that. The VC aims to make more than 25 investments of between €1 million and €10 million each in areas that will include cybersecurity, autonomous systems, deterrence technologies, and space applications.
Keen’s final target of €200 million is a notable hike up from the firm’s initial plans. When Keen first launched the fund in January 2025, its partners had planned to raise just €125 million.
That increase underscores how interest in defence and resilience tech has grown over this year – a consequence of both how the war in Ukraine is driving market demand (and existential threat); and of how the most successful defence tech companies are faring.
The likes of Helsing, Stark, Auterion and Kraken are inking some lucrative contracts with ministries of defence and primes. Investors like Keen will be looking for the next big names in the space.
“If you are building technology that can make a difference on the modern battlefield or strengthen the resilience and deterrence of Europe, we need to talk,” Alexander Ribbink and Giuseppe Lacerenza, partners at Keen Venture Partners, told Resilience Media.
While Helsing has raised hundreds of millions of euros for its business, overall there is a dearth of funding for larger growth-stage investments at the moment. Early-stage – Keen’s sweet spot – remains a very competitive market, however, particularly for the most promising founders.
LPs unlimited
The limited partner line-up in Keen’s fund also speaks to the current taste for defence tech, in contrast to past years.
LPs in the fund include the European Investment Fund (EIF), which committed €40 million back in May – marking the institution’s long-expected pivot toward the defence and dual-use industry.
In fact, Keen Venture Partners’ defence and security fund is among the first European VC vehicles to take capital from the EIF’s €175-million Defence Equity Facility. More industry-focused funds are expected to follow.
Dutch pension fund PME also invested €40 million in October. Other LPs include the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and ABN AMRO, one of The Netherlands’ largest banks.
“We got strong [LP] momentum reflecting the need and the fit of our proposition for professional investors,” Lacerenza noted.
Now with the first close completed comes the next big challenge. Keen is expanding the fund’s investment team across all seniority levels. And it is also looking to hire an adoption partner – a key person who will work directly with portfolio companies to get them talking (and potentially making deals) with relevant defence ministries.
“Being one of the first defence funds in Europe comes with a duty to play the ecosystem role,” said Lacerenza. “It’s also about connecting people, educating people, setting the benchmark, and we look forward to doing this hand-in-hand with [other funds]. It’s an ecosystem play. I mean, we cannot win this alone.”
