Good afternoon from Resilience Media.
Amidst political chaos this week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the much-delayed Defence Investment Plan (DIP). In the fortnight prior, Defence Secretary John Healy and Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Al Cairns resigned in protest of a DIP that was insufficient to protect Great Britain, and Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham won a by-election to become MP, leading to Starmer’s resignation. It was a lot. It is no wonder that the ecosystem was subdued when the DIP was finally unveiled. We reached out to our usually talkative network to ask for comment but mainly received off-the-record requests or a canned statement. Most people didn’t feel comfortable saying what they really thought.
In our reporting, Editor at Large John Biggs wrote about the UK’s investment into drone infrastructure and Toby and I analysed why startups are more crucial than ever to British national security.
Private capital continued to flow into the defence tech sector this week. We break down what you need to know about Acodyne, Dominion Dynamics (who you can hear on stage at Resilience Conference), SE3 Labs, and Quantum Systems. Together these companies brought in around $1.3bn in funding. Read more in the Deals section below.
The 2025 Jaguar Land Rover hack cost the company £2.5bn, halted production, and caused economic chaos across the UK, and rumours swirled that the Russian state attacked the conglomerate. A New York Times investigation this week identified Russia as the culprit, but buried in the piece was one sentence that caught my eye: “Britain has also mounted its own secret cyber-intrusion and sabotage operations against Russia, according to former British and American intelligence officials.” We were intrigued following the recent remarks from GCHQ chief Anne Keast-Butler, and Resilience Media Reporter Carly Page reported on the claim: JLR hack attribution turns spotlight on Britain’s offensive cyber capability.
Join the founders, military leaders, investors, policymakers and industry executives shaping the future of defence and security. With a refreshed format, expanded programme and a focus on the technologies and strategic challenges defining what’s next, Resilience Conference London is where the defence ecosystem comes together to build the future. Early Bird tickets are available until the end of July. Get yours today and we’ll see you in London 5-6 October.
In a Resilience Media exclusive, Osney Capital reveals it closed a £60m UK-based cyber fund. Read an excerpt of the interview in the Dispatches from London section below.
Elsewhere on Resilience Media:
- Estonian forces trial portable drones that prevent RF jamming on the battlefield
- Israel says Iranian cyberattacks triple as hacking groups unite
- FBI: Russian spies are targeting Signal accounts linked to Ukraine with new phishing tactic
- Nokia resurfaces to help build Finland’s border guard anti-drone capability
- Sanctioned Chinese cyber giant claims AI can rival Anthropic’s Mythos
I’ll be back in your inboxes next week. Thanks for reading.
-Leslie Hitchcock, co-founder and Publisher, Resilience Media
DEALS 💰
Dominion Dynamics raises $100M at a $400M valuation to build defence tech for arctic environments
- Dominion Dynamics, the fast-growing Canadian startup building defence tech for extreme climates, is doubling down on the opportunity with a significant funding round: a Series A of $100 million (CAD$150 million).
- Resilience Media understands that the round is coming in at a post-money valuation of $400 million (CAD$570 million).
- The plan will be to use the funding to continue growing Dominion’s business after a very heady six months. Some highlights: The company largely self-funded the development of its flagship product, AuraNet, a mesh-based land, sea and air sensor network designed for arctic and other extreme climates.
Copenhagen-based startup Acodyne lands €2.5 million pre-seed round for autonomous cargo drones
- Copenhagen-based Acodyne announced it has raised €2.5 million in pre-seed funding to help build autonomous cargo aircraft designed for “heavy payload transport.”
- The aircraft will be able to carry “100–500 kg at speeds of up to 450 km/h,” according to an announcement by the founder.
- Gungnir Capital, PSV Hafnium, EIFO, SAP9 Group, and GreenUp Syndicate IV backed the pre-seed round.
Quantum Systems valued at $8bn after landmark $1.2bn funding round
- German defence technology company Quantum Systems has raised $1.2 billion (£880 million) to accelerate its ambition of becoming one of Europe’s next defence primes, as investors continue to pour money into autonomous military systems.
- The Munich-based company said its Series D financing values the business at around $8 billion post-money, more than doubling its previous valuation.
- The round was co-led by Blackstone, Noteus, Airbus, and Advent, with backing from institutional investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company, Wellington Management, A.P. Moller Holding, and BOND, as well as existing investors Balderton and HV Capital.
SE3 Labs emerges from stealth with €5.5M from Lakestar, Seedcamp and Sequoia Scouts
- A startup called SE3 Labs, which has built a spatial AI platform for people to better understand and command autonomous systems, is emerging from stealth armed with funding and notable traction in the market.
- The startup said that it is being “continuously” used by the Bundeswehr, in Ukraine, and by other (unnamed) allied forces in “multiple” defence contracts.
- Lukas Köstler, the CEO and co-founder of SE3, confirmed to Resilience Media that the startup has raised €5.5 million from investors that include Lakestar, Seedcamp, the Berlin early-stage founder incubator EWOR (where Köstler is a fellow), the Sequoia Scout Fund, Plug and Play, TwinTrack and others. (The Sequoia connection is one to watch as it moves on to raise more money.)
- He declined to comment on further fundraising and valuation.
- SE3 is also working with third parties to integrate its software. This includes the German/Swiss/American juggernaut Auterion and, in an MOU announced Thursday, with ERC to equip the latter company’s VTOL systems with SE3’s AI.
DISPATCHES FROM LONDON 🇬🇧
Exclusive: Osney Capital closes £60M cyber fund to back UK’s next generation of security startups
Carly Page, Reporter
Osney Capital has closed its debut cybersecurity fund at a £60 million hard cap after investors piled in beyond its original target, marking one of the UK’s largest first-time seed funds focused exclusively on cyber startups.
The London-based firm tells Resilience Media it set out to raise £50 million but ended up closing the fund at its £60 million limit. The British Business Bank came in as a cornerstone investor through its Enterprise Capital Funds programme, and the fund also carries accreditation from the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), underscoring its focus on technologies with national security relevance.
Since its first close last year, Osney has invested in seven companies spanning software supply chain security, AI security, identity governance, and disinformation detection – including Refute – writing cheques of between £250,000 and £2.5 million as it builds a target portfolio of 30 early-stage UK cybersecurity companies.
For Osney’s founders, however, the story is less about fundraising than the pace at which cybersecurity itself is changing. Despite a subdued venture capital market, the VC firm says specialist cybersecurity investors have largely escaped the slowdown.
“We hear a lot about that from our peers in the generalist community,” said Paul Wilkes, partner at Osney Capital, speaking to Resilience Media. “We don’t see it necessarily day to day. We’re quite fortunate in that sense.”
He argues that increasingly complex technology environments, combined with attackers’ growing use of AI, are opening opportunities for specialist startups to move faster than established security vendors.
“The technology stack for enterprise customers, for government, etc. – that’s only getting more complex day by day, and with complexity comes opportunity for the bad guys,” Wilkes said. “The incumbent solutions just can’t move fast enough to solve those problems, so it creates all the ingredients that you need for entrepreneurs building startups to solve problems quickly.”
