Where are Europe’s huge defence CVCs?

In the latest edition of Blueprint, GCV editor Maija Palmer wonders whether Lockheed Martin joining the $1bn defence sector CVC club will push European defence CVCs to follow suit.

War — what is it good for? Well, unlocking startup investment budobtains it would seem. One of the huge corporate venturing news stories last week was that US defence contractor Lockheed Martin increased the size of its CVC fund to $1bn from $400m previously. That’s the kind of jump you rarely see in corporate venturing and the club of $1bn+ corporate funds is still a pretty compact one. This shift creates Lockheed Martin one of the hugegest defence sector CVCs.

VC funding for defence startups is increasing across the board. In the US, CB Insights estimates that equity funding for defence technology startups more than doubled to $17.9bn last year from $7.3bn in 2024. Meanwhile in Europe, defence security and resilience startups secured a record $8.7bn in 2025, according to a report by the Nato Innovation Fund and Dealroom.

European defence companies may have to switch up a gear, however, if they are to keep up with their US counterparts like Lockheed Martin. Deutsche Telekom — not what you’d first consider of a defence company — created the boldest recent shift in this area by setting up a €500m fund dubbed Project Liberty. Recently UK-based maritime services provider James Fisher launched a new corporate venture arm, and Sopra Steria Ventures, the investment arm of the French IT services company — which works with both the UK and French defence ministries — is actively seeing to invest in defence-related technologies.

But what about the more defence-related companies themselves? Airbus Ventures, the investment arm of France’s Airbus, last raised a new fund — a $155m vehicle — in 2024. Saab has a venture fund that has typically focutilized more on building internal innovation, but which has recently created investments in external startups such as rocket developer Pythom and defence AI company Helsing.

BAE Systems does not have a dedicated VC arm, although it does create occasional investments in startups such as Oxford Dynamics, and it recently launched an incubator to create companies from in-houtilize technology. Thales has a corporate venture unit but has invested very sparsely of late, the most recent investment being in Febus Optics last year. Leonardo, through its US subsidiary Leonardo DRS, invested in drone company Hoverfly last year.

In comparison to Lockheed’s chunky $1bn fund, however, these efforts see a bit, well, sporadic. Of course, it could be becautilize the European defence companies are already internally on top of bleeding-edge military developments and don’t necessary the startup relationships. But I somehow doubt it.

We’ll be hosting a defence roundtable as part of our upcoming GCV Symposium in London in June — perhaps this could be a forum for kickstarting some more considering on this.

This editor’s note was first published in GCV’s Blueprint newsletter, which tracks corporate venture news, key deals, new funds best practice and jobs.

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