Invest-NL invests €10 million in defense and security fund

Invest-NL, the Dutch national financing and development institution, has announced a €10 million investment in the European Defence & Security Tech Fund managed by Keen Venture Partners. The move marks a strategic expansion for Invest-NL into defense and security technology, reflecting growing urgency across Europe to strengthen its technological and economic resilience.

The fund focuses on early-stage European companies developing technology with both civilian and defense and security applications, spanning fields such as AI, cybersecurity, detection technology, robotics, and aerospace.

Europe is facing mounting pressure to close a financing gap for startups in the defense and security space. European startups and scale-ups developing technology for defense and security often struggle to attract sufficient capital within Europe — a gap that Keen Venture Partners' fund is designed to address. The fund aims to invest in approximately 20 to 25 European technology companies, primarily at the Seed and Series A stages, targeting firms at a critical point in their development.

Keen Venture Partners is one of the few European investors specifically focused on early-stage defense and security technology. The team combines venture capital experience with expertise from the defense and technology sectors, supported by an international advisory network of former policymakers, defense specialists, and technology experts.

Investing in defense and security

The fund brings together a broad consortium of institutional and private investors, including the European Investment Fund (EIF), pension fund PME, a.s.r., ABN AMRO, TNO, and LIOF, all aligned around the shared goal of strengthening Europe's defense and security technology ecosystem.

For Invest-NL, the investment represents a natural extension of its existing mandate. Invest-NL had already invested in dual-use technology and is now expanding this to include applications for defense and security, supporting innovations that create economic opportunities while contributing to the safety of the Netherlands and Europe.

Rinke Zonneveld, speaking on behalf of Invest-NL, underscored the rationale: "Europe has strong technology companies, but financing for defense and security technology still lags behind. It is precisely in the early phase that much innovation is left on the table. With this investment, we help close that gap and contribute to building a European ecosystem in which technology, security, and economic strength reinforce each other."

The fund is not without governance safeguards. The European Defense & Security Tech Fund applies an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and human rights policy and has developed a specific due diligence framework for dual-use technology, alongside clear exclusion criteria and ongoing oversight through the fund's governance structure.