Valarian didn’t begin as a defense company. Founded in 2020 by fintech veteran Max Buchan, the London-based firm was initially aimed at helping enterprises control where and how their data moved. But four later, its technology is being built for the battlefields, designed for NATO allies, and focused on the future of digital sovereignty across Europe.
The pivot began with a realization: geopolitical shifts—Brexit, Ukraine, Hong Kong, and rising tensions in Taiwan—weren’t just physical conflicts. They were digital too. Control over information flow, infrastructure, and communication systems had become matters of national security.
“I started Valarian to solve a lot of the kind of jurisdictional issues about where data was, how it was stored, how it was secured—all that good stuff,” said Buchan. “I asked: How do you control where data is, how it moves, especially when it comes to third-party applications?”
“My co-founder Josh McLaughlin spent 18 years serving in the U.S. Special Forces—mainly the Army Rangers and a couple of other SMUs—and then spent 12 years at Palantir Technologies. So he came at it from a very different space. And then we’ve ended up under the group with essentially two facets: Valarian Enterprise, which serves banks, pharma companies, and airlines, and Valarian Defense, which works on national security for NATO member states.”
Valarian’s infrastructure platform, Acra, sits beneath critical applications: encrypted messaging, secure data transfer, local LLM deployment, and more. It’s designed to be deployed in minutes—on enterprise servers or in the field—where it can run on GPUs packed in a rugged Pelican case, optionally connected to Starlink or local networks. The platform is generative on deployment, meaning each instance is unique, with sovereign control over every layer of the stack. Even Valarian itself cannot access a customer’s systems after launch.
Think of it as a very, very secure Docker instance inside a bomb-proof case.
This level of control has made the system attractive to both enterprises and allied governments. “We think of ourselves as digital infrastructure,” said Buchan. He described Acra as enabling complete control over who sees what, when, and where—even in battlefield conditions.
While many startups struggle to sell into government, Valarian’s path was accelerated by McLaughlin’s connections in multiple governments. Their network and insight into procurement cycles helped Valarian land early government contracts, including one with the U.S. government that led to the creation of a dedicated defense division.
The company’s leadership is steeped in national security. Chairman Nick Trim, former COO of UK cybersecurity leader Darktrace, brings deep operational and go-to-market experience. Valarian’s investor base includes Palantir veterans, U.S. defense funds like Scout Ventures, and strategics like Artis Ventures and Gokul Rajaram.
Still, Buchan acknowledges that building a dual-use company in Europe isn’t easy. “The issue, I think, sometimes is we conflate increased budget spending with increased capability,” he said. “The reality is we could go to 5% of GDP, we could go to 10% of GDP, but it’s not necessarily going to translate into procuring the right set of capabilities.”
Valarian wants to prove that Europe can build sovereign software that competes with U.S. heavyweights.
“UK companies want to buy British software. The problem is historically there hasn’t really been anything that kind of can compete. So obviously at Valarian, we are hoping to change that. We are trying to be competitive in those tenders with the best companies in the world.”
Valarian looks to be one of the best-of-breed UK companies bringing dual-use into the market. With $20 million in funding and a working product, it seems to be doubling down on that perceived value.
