Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Investment in defence technology start-ups is picking up speed in Europe, says the head of Nato\u2019s \u20ac1bn venture capital fund, who believes the region can produce several potential multibillion-dollar companies to rival those in the US. The Nato Innovation Fund kicked off its investment programme at the start of this year by backing four start-ups directly, including Wales-based Space Forge with its plans to produce novel materials in space. The fund also put money in four VC funds that focus on \u201cdeep tech\u201d, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, space and energy. Andrea Traversone, the scheme\u2019s managing partner, told the Financial Times that the fund\u2019s aim was to address a \u201cmarket failure\u201d whereby most traditional VC firms fail to invest in more ambitious, long-term technology. The Nato fund invests over 15 years in contrast to most VCs, which have to return their funds within 10 years. \u201cWe have a significant amount of capital to deploy during these long and capital intensive R&D cycles\u201d for deep tech, Traversone said. \u201cWhen it comes to defence tech, the market has grown dramatically over the past three or four years for the geopolitical reasons we all know,\u201d he said, alluding to Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and rising tensions between the US and China. The trend started earlier in the US, Traversone said, but Europe is now \u201ccatching up very fast\u201d. The Netherlands-based fund this year also backed ARX Robotics, a German developer of dual-use autonomous ground systems for surveillance and transportation, and invested in London-based Fractile AI, which makes AI systems run more efficiently, as well as iCOMAT, a University of Bristol spinout that is developing lighter and stronger materials for aerospace and automotive vehicles. The funds receiving Nato capital are Join Capital, Vsquared Ventures, OTB Ventures and Alpine Space Ventures. Traversone said Europe could soon have a homegrown rival to emerging US champion Anduril, a developer of AI and robotics including drones and surveillance systems that raised $1.5bn at a $7bn valuation in late 2022. \u201cThere are many candidates to become the equivalent of Anduril in the regions we cover,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we are investing in some of them. So I am very confident that that is changing and is changing very fast.\u201d More European entrepreneurs are becoming \u201centhusiastic\u201d about building so-called dual-use technology, which can be applied to commercial and defence applications, he added. Many investors, notably in Europe, have been wary of backing defence companies, fearful of falling foul of environmental, social and governance rules. The war in Ukraine, however, and government investments into capabilities such as drones, cyber and AI which have broader applications, have helped change perceptions of the sector. In May, the European Investment Bank, a significant backer of VC firms on the continent, opened the door to more deals in defence tech companies by removing a minimum threshold of revenues from civilian applications for dual-use tech companies that receive its funds. Another factor accelerating investment into defence tech companies is what Traversone described as a \u201ccultural shift\u201d in procurement, typically a slow and laborious process that start-ups have struggled to navigate. \u201cUkraine has changed everything,\u201d Traversone said. \u201cUkraine is showing to all the allies that you can adopt technology and experiment at a much faster pace.\u201d Recent investors in European defence tech companies include General Catalyst and Spotify founder Daniel Ek\u2019s Prima Materia, which have backed German AI developer Helsing. Air Street Capital, meanwhile, led a \u20ac6mn seed round in Greece\u2019s Lambda Automata in October. Germany, the UK, Italy, Spain and Turkey are among the 24 countries contributing to the Nato Innovation Fund, which was first proposed in 2021. The US, Canada and France have not agreed to support it. As well as investing with a goal of generating financial returns, the fund acts as a \u201cmatchmaker\u201d between government buyers of technology and start-ups developing novel products, Traversone said. It plans to invest in areas such as biotech, communications, security and quantum computing. \u201cThe mission of the fund is to invest in disruptive technology that enhances the safety of the alliance\u2019s citizens and Nato\u2019s technological edge,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Investment in defence technology start-ups is picking up speed in Europe, says the head of Nato\u2019s \u20ac1bn venture capital fund, who believes the region can produce several potential multibillion-dollar companies to rival those in the US. The Nato Innovation Fund kicked off its investment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-128821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}