Good afternoon from Resilience Media.
Last week saw the devastating missile attack on a defence tech demo day in the Kyiv region in which 10 people were killed and 100 wounded. The loss has been felt acutely in the ecosystem. We remember Colonel Valentyna Savitska who lost her life in the Russian attack, and others who have been affected. Convening the defence tech sector, especially in Ukraine, creates very real risks both to attendees and the teams who produce these events. The fallout from last week’s attack is wide-reaching, forcing the postponement of the Brave1 Defense Tech Valley, the EDTH Lviv Hackathon, and the Lviv Iron Demo. We stand with our friends who run these events, and support what must have been a very difficult decision.
EXCLUSIVE: Keen Venture Partners has published “Selling to the UK MoD: A practical (but surely incomplete) guide for defence tech founders.” It’s the second in a series of reports guiding how defence tech founders can sell into Europe’s NATO defence ministries, and follows the inaugural Dutch edition published in June. Read more from Reporter Paul Sawers in an excerpt below.
GERMANY: The German government announced last week the creation of a fund to invest in growth rounds for privately backed defence tech companies already in contract with government entities. Managing Editor Ingrid Lunden reports on the welcome development, asking who stands to benefit.
PEOPLE: Maritime defence tech unicorn Kraken Technology Group made two major talent announcements this week, bringing Helsing and BAE-alumna Amelia Gould on board as CTO and expanding their presence in the US with Justin Litko at the helm as country CEO.
DEALS: Agon comes out of stealth to bring AI testing models to Europe defence tech companies and BAE Systems spin out Nuclear Turbines comes out of stealth. We unpack these funding announcements in our Deals section below.
LAUNCH@RC: Resilience Media’s Altea Fresia wrote an analysis of the startups who applied for our LAUNCH at Resilience Conference startup showcase. Over 100 companies applied. Read her analysis of those companies here.
Resilience Conference London is on October 5-6 this year. Early Bird ticket pricing ends tomorrow at midnight GMT on July 31.
Join us in October to hear from leaders in the industry. This week we were very pleased to announce that Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, General Catalyst Managing Director and Head of Europe, will be speaking. As one of Europe’s leading venture capital investors, Jeannette has been at the forefront of discussions around innovation, industrial resilience and the technologies shaping the future of economic and national security. Her work spans venture capital, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and the strategic investments required to strengthen Europe’s long-term competitiveness.
More speakers will be announced over the coming weeks. Get your ticket today.
Elsewhere on Resilience Media:
- Frankenburg, ACUA and Babcock pair up for a new line of naval defence
- [VIDEO] How militaries survive when their drones reappear in Lima, Peru
- [VIDEO] Auterion’s CEO on drone warfare, interceptors, and the operating system for autonomy
- Kelluu brings persistent airship surveillance to the Arctic, expands to Canada
- UK Ministry of Defence to give 22 British SMEs up to £300,000 for munitions proposals
I’ll be back in your inboxes next week. Thanks for reading.
-Leslie Hitchcock, co-founder and Publisher, Resilience Media
DEALS 💰
Agon emerges from stealth with $30M to build AI training models for defence
- A new London startup, founded by a team with roots in defence and AI, is emerging from stealth this morning, armed with one of the biggest defence tech seed rounds of the year in Europe.
- Agon is aiming to build AI infrastructure specifically to train defence models in Europe, and to get going, it is coming out of the gates with $30 million.
- Lakestar, Lux Capital, Northzone, and XYZ are among the startup’s initial investors, the company said.
- We have separately also learned that Bessemer Venture Partners is also backing the company.
- The funding is coming in the form of a $7 million pre-seed followed by a $23 million seed. The list of top-shelf investors involved here underscores the attention and push that defence tech is attracting in the current geopolitical climate.
BAE spin-out Nuclear Turbines raises £15M for compact reactor push
- Manchester-based startup Nuclear Turbines has emerged from stealth with £15 million in funding to develop compact reactors it claims could bring the cost of nuclear power below fossil fuels.
- The company, spun out of BAE Systems through its Launchpad initiative, is taking a different approach to the small modular reactor (SMR) market by ditching much of the steam infrastructure used in conventional nuclear plants.
- Instead, its reactor is being designed to work with high-temperature turbine technology more commonly associated with jet engines and gas-fired power stations.
- Nuclear Turbines says the resulting system should be smaller and cheaper to build, making it practical to install directly at energy-hungry industrial sites, including factories and data centres.
EXCLUSIVE ✍️
Selling to the UK MoD is full of friction for defence startups; but it doesn’t have to be like that
Paul Sawers, Reporter
European defence, security, and resilience startups raised a record $8.7 billion in 2025, according to data published in February by Dealroom and the NATO Innovation Fund — this was up 55% year-on-year, and nearly four times on what the sector raised in 2020. The UK led the pack, pulling in $2.9 billion last year, and just shy of $10 billion in total since 2020, more than any other European country.
Public spending on defence tech looks just as healthy on the surface. The UK spent £61.4 billion in 2025, according to a Tracxn report, equivalent to 2.3% of GDP and second in Europe only to Germany. Between the venture capital flowing in and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) money pouring out, there is no obvious shortage of resources or good will in British defence tech.
However, none of that makes it any easier for a startup trying to turn a pilot, grant, or warm introduction into an actual MoD contract. Raising money and selling to the Ministry of Defence are two different games, and a new report out today argues that most founders are still playing the wrong one.
Keen Venture Partners, an Amsterdam and London-based venture capital (VC) firm that launched its first defence-focused fund in November 2025, has published “Selling to the UK MoD: A practical (but surely incomplete) guide for defence tech founders.” It’s the second in a series of reports guiding how defence tech founders can sell into Europe’s NATO defence ministries, and follows the inaugural Dutch edition published in June.
Co-authored by Keen and Robbie Hicks, a defence strategist and former Army officer now working as an independent consultant, the paper’s core argument is that founders can often confuse a good reception with a good outcome.
“There’s a process, there are stages [and] procedures to follow, and being liked by the people in the room is only a small part of it,” Angad Singh, associate at Keen, tells Resilience Media. “Founders who do well are the ones who understand that early, plan for the expected long timelines and manage their priorities around it.”
EVENTS 🎟️
European Defense Tech Festival – Berlin
20-27 August: EDTH is hosting their European Defense Tech Festival. Register your interest here. Resilience Media is a proud partner of EDTH and its work. We’ll see you in Berlin!
