Lockheed Martin Ventures Pours $100 Million into European DefenceTech Startups

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-17

American VC firm Lockheed Martin Ventures is making a big bet on European innovation. The company is expanding its reach to European markets to invest its $1 billion fund in promising DefenceTech companies from across the continent. ### A New London Office The firm is opening a London office with the goal of investing at least $100 million of its funding in the United Kingdom and Europe. This move signals a serious commitment to the region's startup ecosystem. "We are reaching even deeper into the investing ecosystem, meeting our potential partners where they are," says Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. "Our presence will help us seize opportunities for investing earlier in the startup lifecycle, ensure technical interoperability with existing platforms, and better support our allied customers." ### Why Europe? Lockheed Martin Ventures' plan to deploy part of its investment capacity in Europe comes amid substantial financing activity across the continent's DefenceTech, dual-use, unmanned-systems, and sovereign-intelligence sectors. These areas are seeing a surge in interest from both private and public investors. Recent data shows that more than $1.24 billion has been raised by nine relevant companies. A huge chunk of that—$1.14 billion—came from Quantum Systems' Series D round. The other disclosed rounds together account for roughly $98.7 million. That's a lot of cash flowing into defense and dual-use tech. ### UK Startups Leading the Way UK-based companies are a big part of this pipeline. Think London's SatVu and Occam Industries, or Bristol's Uplift360. The UK, where Lockheed Martin Ventures intends to establish its European office, is clearly a visible part of this funding wave. "We are looking to invest in technologies that complement the company's national security capabilities and help advance solutions to meet current and future customer mission needs, while further strengthening the transatlantic defense industrial base," adds Dan Tenney, senior vice president of Global Business Development and Strategy. "We expect our investment strategy to evolve as technologies emerge and the startup environment matures in markets where we do business around the world." ### A Track Record of Success Founded in 2007 with initial funding of $100 million, Lockheed Martin Ventures is the investment arm of the American aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin. Since its founding, it has matured 60 companies to become suppliers. That's no small feat. To date, it has invested more than $500 million in more than 120 companies. Over the past two years alone, 25 companies have been added to the portfolio. The pace is picking up. ### More Than Just Money Apart from capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures provides portfolio companies with access to resources such as their engineering talent, technologies and research, and the full suite of Lockheed Martin's business and technical expertise. That's a huge advantage for startups that need more than just funding to scale. The focus on European innovation follows the largest boost in available capital in the fund's history. In April, the company announced it would boost investment capacity from $400 million to $1 billion. That's a 150% increase. ### What This Means for Startups Using a portion of that enhanced funding capacity, Lockheed Martin Ventures Europe will accelerate the insertion of new technologies into DefenceTech. This is part of the company's commitment to strengthen the transatlantic defense industrial base. The firm says they have already invested in a number of European companies. While the full list is available on their site, it's clear they're serious about finding the next big thing in defense technology. For European startups, this is a huge opportunity. Not only do you get access to capital, but you also get the backing of one of the biggest names in aerospace and defense. If you're working on something that could complement Lockheed Martin's capabilities, now might be the time to reach out.