Key takeaways
- €1bn investment arm of NATO has opened an office in Warsaw, Poland.
- Targeting burgeoning Central and Eastern Europe defence tech market.
- The region has some of the highest defence spending in NATO, set to surpass 5% of GDP in certain countries.
The NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), a €1bn venture capital fund backed by 24 NATO allies, has opened a Warsaw office to expand its engagement with defence and deep tech startups across Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.
The fund has appointed Jan Duthel to lead the office as CEE Adoption Lead and partnered with the Polish Dual-Use Chamber to strengthen links with local founders, investors, government and industry.
The Warsaw team will identify investment opportunities in the regions and help portfolio companies move from pilot projects to procurement contracts. NIF invests from seed to Series B, with initial tickets of €3m–€10m, and is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
The move comes amid a regional defence build-up driven by Russia’s war against Ukraine. Baltic states have increased their military budgets in recent years and noticeably outspend their western neighbours when measured as a percentage of GDP. Poland currently allocates the most, with 4.5% of its GDP spent on defence, while Lithuania follows with 4% and neighbouring Latvia 3.7%. Estimates for 2026 spending suggest that all three of these countries will exceed 4.6% of GDP, along with Estonia.
This is creating strong demand for defence contracts that the NIF will seek to capitalise. In fact, defence and security startups across ten CEE countries raised €222m in the first nine months of 2026, following €245m the previous year, showing a vibrant investment market, according to research compiled by Latvia based VC firm Badideas.fund.
“Poland is investing heavily in defence and security, but financial resources alone do not generate military capability. What matters is the ability to identify the right technologies, validate them quickly and translate innovation into operational advantage,” said Polish Secretary of State Cezary Tomczyk.
“Poland and the broader CEE region are producing serious founders building serious technologies,” added NIF president Ari Jonsson. “Our job is to get those technologies into the hands of the governments and militaries that need them.”
The fund already has exposure to Poland’s venture ecosystem through investments in Expeditions and OTB Ventures.
