Today, Amsterdam-based Keen Venture Partners announces that it has completed the first close of its European defence and security technology fund – raising more than €150 million to become the largest DefenceTech venture capital fund in Europe.
The European Investment Fund (EIF) and pension fund PME each committed €40 million. Keen is the first European VC fund to receive a commitment from the EIF under its new €175 million Defence Investment Programme. Other investors include TNO, the Netherlands’ largest applied research organisation, and ABN AMRO.
“With the first close completed, we are firing on all cylinders,” say Alexander Ribbink and Giuseppe Lacerenza, partners at Keen Venture Partners. “We have institutional backing from the EIF and PME, and an advisory board with deep experience in both military operations and defence policy. Europe has the talent, the technology and the ambition. What was missing was capital and access to launching defence customers. That is the gap we are closing.”
In parallel, Warsaw-based Expeditions Fund II has raised over €100 million in 2025 (with a target of up to €150 million) to invest in cybersecurity, AI, quantum and DefenseTech in Europe. Furthermore, Luxembourg-based Balnord has closed a €70 million first round for its Fund I to back frontier and dual-use technologies in the Baltic Sea region, with a path toward a €100 million final close by mid-2026. Taken together, these three funds represent approximately €210 million of committed capital in Europe’s DefenseTech and dual-use venture domain in 2025.
“Our message to entrepreneurs is clear: If you are building technology that can make a difference on the modern battlefield or strengthen the resilience and deterrence of Europe, we need to talk. This is about adding entrepreneurs to Europe’s defence-tech ecosystem and building a stronger, more innovative Europe together,” added Ribbink and Lacerenza.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte made clear that Europe can no longer wait to strengthen its own defence capabilities.
Investing more in European technology is essential for achieving strategic autonomy. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that scalable, software-driven technologies, including AI and autonomous systems, now significantly impact effectiveness on the modern battlefield.
European startups are also building these technologies. Yet only one quarter of European defence procurement budgets currently stays within the EU. As a result, innovators lack both capital and access to initial defence customers.
Keen Venture Partners, founded in 2016, has built a reputation for supporting DeepTech ventures with a thesis-led approach. The firm operates out of Amsterdam and London and is known for actively collaborating with European tech entrepreneurs long before a formal investment.
Keen backs companies that develop dual-use technology as well as defence-first companies building critical capabilities directly for defence. The fund focuses on key areas within DefenseTech, including cybersecurity, autonomous systems, deterrence technologies, and space applications.
Keen aims to invest in more than 25 companies from Seed to Series B, with the emphasis on Series A, with investments ranging from €1 to €10 million.
Previous defence and security investments include EclecticIQ, Intelic (formerly Avalor AI), and Perciv AI. Keen expects extensive collaboration and co-investment with other European VC firms over the coming years.
To support this next phase of growth, Keen is ramping up the team and hiring additional investment professionals.
2025 has marked a busy year for Keen – as per EU-Startups coverage. In January 2025, EU-Startups reported that Keen VP was “raising €125 million to strengthen Europe’s defence-tech ecosystem” – a fund to back dual-purpose technologies in NATO countries and support 20-25 startups from seed to Series B. In May 2025, EU-Startups reported that Keen had secured a €40 million commitment from the European Investment Fund (EIF) for its European Defence & Security Tech Fund.
