Defence, Security and Resilience in Europe 2026: The State of Startups and Venture Capital (Dealroom)

Summary

• VC funding in European Deep Tech Defence, Security and Resilience startups reached $8.7B in 2025, up 55% from last year, while the overall VC market grew by only 16%.p.4
• Defence, Security and Resilience accounted for a record 13% of all VC funding in Europe in 2025, up 3x from three years back.p.12
• The sector accounted for 43% of deep tech funding, up from 20% in 2022.p.12
• Late stage funding reached $4.7B, a 154% growth compared to 2024, while early stage funded $1.1B (-10%) and breakout $2.8B (-13%).p.13
• The UK attracted the most VC funding in 2025 with $2.9B, and Germany is closing the gap with $2.1B.p.3
• Debt funding to DSR startups multiplied by 26x over the last 5 years, reaching $1.4B in 2025.p.20
• AI underpinned 44% of DSR funding in 2025, the highest share in the last 6 years.p.44

Key insights

1. Munich is the top European hub with $1.7B in VC funding in 2025, and 43% of it was raised by Helsing.p.4
2. The number of investors active in at least one deal has increased 2.6x in the last five years.p.21
3. Germany, the UK and France represent 68% of the total amount raised in 2025 but only 44% of the number of rounds.p.30
4. M&A activity is at an all-time high in 2025, 4x more than four years ago, while no public listings took place in 2025.p.38
5. VC funding in Awareness, understanding and decision making reached $1.8B in 2025, up 7.4x since 2020.p.46
6. VC funding in Security of critical technologies reached $2.4B in 2025, a 2.4x increase compared to 2024.p.49
7. Supply chain resilience funding reached a new all-time high of $1.1B.p.50
8. Energy security and climate change VC funding fell slightly in 2025 to just below $860M.p.48