Monthly read
Dual-Use Tech: A Fast-Growing Bet
Defence tech just became Europe's second-fastest growing VC category. In 2025, global investment hit $49.9 billion, nearly double the year before. Five companies now hold 60% of all European defence-tech capital raised since 2021. Pension funds are moving in. The EU just opened new funding instruments for dual-use startups. This month: where the money actually comes from, and why the gap between record capital and falling deal count matters more than the headline numbers.
Read the full article here - thank you to Paula !
We're proud to be partnering with Bpifrance and EuroQuity on European Defence Week 2026, the flagship event of the European Defence Alliance. If you work in dual-use or defence innovation, this is the place to be.
✨Want to partner on the
2026 Pensions and Venture Project?✨
a continuation of work of 2025 https://www.europeanwomenvc.org/report-2025
🚀 News in VC
Huge congratulations to Auxxo
for closing at €33.3M!
AUXXO FEMALE CATALYST FUND
Raising a fund is hard. Doing it as a team focused on backing diverse founders makes it harder. Gesa (our Funding Member), Bettine, Alena and Melanie pushed through years of hard work and came out the other side with more than capital. New relationships. Sharper focus. A platform that solves a real problem for your community. The Founder Matchmaking Platform is a smart move. Repeat founders want strong co-founders. You are now positioned to make those connections happen systematically, not by chance!
We have interviewed Bettine Schmitz this week, check it out here!
British Business Bank committed £46m as cornerstone investor in Zinc's Science-for-Impact Fund - well done Ella and Team!
Zinc has announced that the British Business Bank has agreed to commit up to £46M as a cornerstone investor in its new £70M Science-for-Impact Fund. The fund will back the next generation of ambitious UK founders turning breakthrough science and deep technologies into companies tackling major challenges in health and the environment. Congratulation Ella Goldner and Paul Kirby!
Two Wins for Atlantic Bridge: Satellite AI and AI Security Funding
A strong month for Atlantic Bridge's deep tech portfolio, with two significant funding rounds announced. Ubotica Technologies announced an $11M investment round to scale its Live Maritime Intelligence platform, powered by AI running on-board satellites and providing real-time intelligence from orbit, demonstrated with partners including ESA and NASA. Mindgard, a leading AI security raised a $30M Series A. Mindgard's platform helps enterprises discover, red team and protect their AI systems, and its research has uncovered more than 150 publicly disclosed high-impact vulnerabilities across widely used AI products.
EXIT NEWS: Borski Fund portfolio company Aiir Innovations has been acquired by Pratt & Whitney!
The Amsterdam-based startup built AI-assisted borescope software for aircraft engine inspection. After winning over customers the hard way from KLM to Waygate to MTU Leasing, Aiir will now scale inside one of the world's largest engine makers, powering inspection workflows across Pratt & Whitney's global MRO network for commercial, civil, and military engines. It is a standout outcome for a team founded by AI students from the University of Amsterdam back in 2016. Exits are the talk of the day across European venture, and DPI is what every fund manager is being asked to deliver this is what success looks like in action. We are immensely proud to highlight Simone Brummelhuis, co-founder of Borski Fund and a founding member of European Women in VC, for her leadership and vision in backing this journey. Congratulations to the founders, the Aiir Innovations team, and everyone at Borski Fund who supported this from day one!
Positron Ventures’ Portfolio Company’s Success!
On August 28, 2026, Pasqal began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker PSQL. The listing came through a business combination with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II, valuing the combined company at roughly $2B in enterprise value and delivering $360M in gross proceeds. This is the first Positron portfolio company to reach public markets. Positron's position traces back to 2022, when its first investment, Qu&Co, merged into Pasqal. Pasqal builds neutral-atom quantum computers. Its board is chaired by Alain Aspect, the 2022 Nobel laureate in Physics and a Pasqal co-founder.
Lena Thiede from Planet A: Reuters on Britain’s Drought and Rising Water Bills
In Reuters' Sustainable Switch newsletter, Lena Thiede, general partner and co-founder at Planet A, weighed in on agriculture and food security. She argued that recent shocks, heatwaves, the Strait of Hormuz, El Niño, Ukraine, Covid, are not isolated events. They signal a new system of volatility. Thiede pointed to Britain's reliance on food imports and falling wheat and barley yields as a case in point. She called for treating nature as a financial asset tied to every harvest, and flagged opportunities in precision agriculture, alternative proteins, and supply-chain intelligence as ways forward.
Back to our topic of the month… EIC opens up to Dual-Use and Defense Technologies
The European Innovation Council (EIC) has crossed a historical line by opening direct equity investments to defence and dual-use startups. Driven by the EU's Defence Mini-Omnibus, this marks a fundamental shift in how European deep-tech is funded.
Key Takeaways: 1. Dual-Use Unlocked: EIC Accelerator and STEP Scaleup now cover dual-use technologies (AI, quantum, robotics, advanced materials) with up to €2.5M in grants and €30M in equity. 2. Pure Defence Pipeline: A dedicated €100M EIC STEP Defence Scale Up call offers up to €30M equity checks for critical capabilities like drones, counter-drone systems, and air defence, designed to anchor larger €50M–€150M+ rounds. 3. Who & When: Open to startups in EU member states, Horizon Europe-associated EEA countries, and Ukraine. Applications close October 28, 2026, with results in early 2027. Alongside the NATO Innovation Fund and emerging regional hubs, the EU’s direct market entry effectively turns defence from a venture liability into a strategic moat for European founders.
People who inspired us lately🦸♀️
Hilary Howe
Hilary Howe is Partner at Seedcamp, leading the firm's early growth investing practice from New York, where she helps breakout portfolio companies scale from Series A onwards and navigate their move into the US market. She joined us in August for an AMA session, so we're especially excited to spotlight her on our channels.
Machtelt Groothuis
Machtelt Groothuis is Co-Founder, Partner, and Chair of the Investment Committee at Rubio Impact Ventures, She spent 10 years in private equity at McKinsey, 3i, and AlpInvest before co-founding Rubio with Willemijn Verloop in 2014. She helped build a rigorous impact methodology with the EIF and today she calls out funds that use impact language without delivering real impact.
Alena Redeker
Congratulations to Alena Redeker Principal from Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund for being named one of Sifted's top junior VCs to watch across Europe! So proud to see Alena recognized alongside such a strong group of investors shaping the future of European venture.
Nicole LeBlanc
Nicole LeBlanc a Partner at Woven Capital, has spent her career betting on cities before most investors thought cities were a venture category. She leads investments in companies including Corvus Energy, ElevenLabs, Intuition Robotics, and WeaveGrid, and serves on multiple boards. She is focused on how venture capital can accelerate the shift toward circular economies, renewable energy systems, and sustainable mobility solutions at scale.
Mari Heikkinen
Meri Heikkinen is Founding Partner and Fund Manager at Unmanned.vc, a fund backing pre-seed startups in dual-use and robotics technology, investing across Europe. Meri is the sole member of Unmanned.vc's operational team, Fund Manager and the person driving the firm's search for promising unmanned-technology startups.
Inka Mero
Inka Mero is Founder and Managing Partner at Voima Ventures. Before turning to venture capital, she spent two decades on the operating side of technology and growth companies. Today she backs science-based founders, champions diversity in deep tech through initiatives like Women to Boards, and co-authored the book Radical Solutions on bold structural change for Finland.
What we have been up to?
🔵 AMA Session with Hilary Howe from Seedcamp - Hilary shared a candid conversation about what it takes to support breakout companies as they scale. She leads the firm's early growth investing practice from New York. She recently helped close Seedcamp's seventh fund ($220M) alongside a $100M second Select fund, pushing the firm's total assets under management past $1 billion. Hilary discussed deploying follow-on capital and building conviction around winners. She also covered how she helped European founders navigate and expand into the U.S. market.
🔵 Interview with Luca Mannucci, Managing Partner and CIO at Sella Venture Partners, the alternative asset arm of Italy's largest private banking group, Gruppo Sella. Mannucci discusses SVP's generalist, geography-agnostic approach to backing early-stage VC funds across Europe and the US, split evenly between primary and secondary commitments. He also addresses the firm's ongoing raise for Fund of Funds II and early outlier returns from Fund I.
Attend one of our partners’ events
✨ Our Friends at Ion Pacific invite us to join them for Secondaries & Cocktails Evening, 6th September, Paris - register here
✨ The Tech Bros: Cohort 2 Demo Day, 15th September, online
✨Empowering Equity by European Investment Fund, 21st September, Luxembourg, register here
✨ ”The Secret Life of VC Data: How it enters, where it hides, and how to get it out.”, 25th September, open for everyone, register here
✨Cambridge Future Technologies Forum, 29th September, Cambridge - (If EWVC members are interested, please email our Ambassador of Startup Community [email protected])
✨ Super Return Asia, 28th September-1st October, Singapore- 10% discount code: FKR3643EWVC or click here
✨ Impact/Return 2026, 14th October, Barcelona, (EWVC has two free tickets to giveaway, message us privately)
✨ VERBUND x Venture Day, 19th-20th October, Vienna, register here
✨Global Wealth Management Summit, 4th-5th November, London - (Discount code contact us)
✨European Defence Week 2026, We are partnering for a project with Bpifrance, EuroQuity, 2nd–6th November, Paris, Pre-registration is now open: here
✨SuperReturn Europe, 3rd-6th November, Amsterdam - 10% discount code: FKR3673EWVC or click here
✨ SuperReturn Secondaries North America, 17th-18th November, New York City - 10% discount code: FKR3675EWVC or click here
✨ Meet the LP and AMA Sessions with: Aurum, Thema VC, AQVC and Molten Ventures, you can apply for an invitation here
What we are currently reading:
You can support us! We are a community-founded organization, built from the ground up by people who believed in our cause and came together to make it happen.