The NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) is changing the game by completely revamping its investment team. With this new leadership now in place, they’re well-poised to ramp up technological innovation within the Alliance. The NIF has already achieved more than $1 billion in commitments from over 20 countries. This move comes as the initiative reaches its stride on the European VC markup, capturing a record-high 10% of all VC financing.
The NIF has been a great experiment in Europe, where its 24 countries act as limited partners. Collectively, these member states are making a concerted effort to better develop defense technologies and foster innovation. Now, internal dynamics are facing severe criticism. Internally, countless members have pointed to the former investment team as a leading cause of the organization’s discord and overall dysfunction.
These shifts come in the wake of founding team partners Kelly Chen and Chris O’Connor leaving the firm. While Chen has decided to let go to return to the world of startups, O’Connor’s departure is the latest in a dramatic run of leadership. Their departures pave the way for two new partners: Ulrich Quay and Sander Verbrugge.
Quay will be a terrific asset to our growing team. He was vice president responsible for corporate investments at BMW. He established and led BMW i Ventures, an early-stage investment group for innovative automotive technologies. His expertise in applying advanced data-driven techniques to investing is sure to sharpen NIF’s investment strategies.
Verbrugge is trained in molecular biophysics with a PhD from the University of Illinois. He is an accomplished investor in deep technologies, as a former partner at Innovation Industries. His deep academic pedigree and industrial experience will be key as the NIF doubles down on its goal to identify opportunities suitable for industrial scale.
Fiona Murray, a key figure within NIF, expressed confidence in the new team members, stating, “They will enable us to move even more rapidly and decisively to drive the Alliance’s technological agenda and support the best founders across European ecosystems.”
In this upcoming phase of development, the NIF hopes to focus on DSR (Defense, Security, and Resilience) opportunities. Murray added that the fund would focus on developing companies able to power the industrial-scale solutions needed to feed European ecosystems.
“We are proud of what we accomplished but like any effective team we are learning, experimenting, improving: speeding up our processes, expanding our platform support for startups, doubling down on ecosystem building and more broadly recognizing the need to build the sector and the capital stack,” Murray added.
The reorganization comes at a precarious time. In fact, as of this writing, the NIF is on track to meet its investment goals for the year. Emphasizing this fund’s operational efficiency only strengthens their collaborative work with partners. This strategy puts the fund on a stronger footing to be successful in supporting the most innovative technologies to meet the department’s most urgent needs.
With its new slate of leadership, NIF is pressing ahead. It has a fine bipartisan tradition of creating an attractive environment for startups and entrepreneurs in the defense sector. This strategic pivot directs resources to better improve investment outcomes. It reinforces NATO’s role as a leader in technological innovation across Europe.