Europe is rearming. Defence spending across Europe reached $864 billion in 2025, a 14% real increase in a single year, while the United States remained the world's deepest defence market at $954 billion. Behind those budgets sits a rapidly expanding ecosystem of private businesses building the technologies, systems and capabilities governments now need.

Private capital has noticed. Defence technology attracted $9.6 billion across 206 venture rounds in 2025, with a further $14.6 billion invested in the first five months of 2026. Family offices, sovereign investors, growth equity, private credit and strategic capital are increasingly entering a sector they largely avoided a decade ago.

Defence requires more than capital

But defence is not a conventional capital market. Certification, procurement pathways, prime and consortium relationships, export controls, national security considerations and foreign ownership restrictions can determine whether an investor is even capable of participating before valuation enters the conversation. The right capital requires more than an investor database. It requires people who understand the sector from the inside.

Experience inside the system

That is the experience behind our practice. Our senior advisors bring decades across military operations, defence acquisition, regulation, strategy and commercialisation, spanning the Royal Navy, US and UK defence organisations, rapid acquisition and major defence contractors. Their careers include responsibility for $220M operating units, $100M+ federal enterprises, £300M capability programmes and £12B defence portfolios, alongside the authorisation of 100+ types of military aircraft and drones for operational use.

Experience matched by access

That experience is matched by access to capital. We have built relationships across the leading defence investors in Europe, alongside specialist investors, strategic capital and private markets firms across the United States. Our current mandates range from $2M to $50M, across satellite systems, long-range unmanned platforms and electric aerospace propulsion.

We understand the business first, map the opportunity against the relevant capital, account for the regulatory and strategic constraints, and make introductions that have a reason to happen. We do not simply open doors. We help businesses understand which doors are worth opening, who is behind them, and how to get through them.

Access without understanding is not enough. Understanding without access is equally limited. We bring both.