European Investment Fund to launch a €200M defense tech fund — Sifted

The European Investment Fund is set to launch a €200 million fund to support European defense tech, according to Sifted that got at its disposal a letter from the European Commission’s defense division sent to fund managers.

• Traditionally, the European investors largely avoided supporting the military and defense tech industries, as the investments could’ve been considered unethical, Sifted writes. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused the sector to soar, as several companies managed to secure big money after the start of the war.
• The defense sector is currently connected to Ukraine in some way or another. In 2023, several huge funding cases came into being, including the $8 million investment in production of Dovbush T10 drones or Microsoft Ukraine ex-head’s 50% share acquisition of the AeroDrone company.
• It is also worth mentioning that a military tech accelerator D3 will be launched in recent months in Ukraine, and Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, is among its LPs.
• Furthermore, NATO is also actively preparing to launch its €1 billion Innovation Fund. The initiative aims to support deeptech startups from 23 allied-countries that can have double-use in both civilian life and for the defense and security purposes.

• The EIF fund is supposed to be announced in Brussels on June 29 at an investor workshop and defense startups pitch session.