A London startup that analyzes compiled software for hidden vulnerabilities just closed a $15 million Series A led by the NATO Innovation Fund, with In-Q-Tel on the cap table.

Founded in 2023.

The hot take: the best defense tech deals of 2026 were written in 2023, when the founders sounded like infrastructure engineers solving a compliance problem, not category leaders solving a sovereignty crisis.

European defense and security startups raised $8.7 billion in 2025, up 55% year on year. The money followed the problem. The founders who got funded at Series A this year had the problem before the money arrived.

That is the only sequence that works.