NATO has confirmed the first tranche of companies to receive funding from the group’s $1.1 billion innovation fund.
KEY FACTS
- The alliance established the fund in the summer of 2022, months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, promising to invest in technology that would improve its defences. The fund is supported by 24 of NATO’s 32 member states, including Finland and Sweden, which joined the alliance earlier this year.
- On Tuesday, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) confirmed that it has invested directly in four European technology companies that it says will help address defence, security and sustainability challenges.
- The authority has awarded funding to Fractile AI, a London-based computer chip maker aiming to make large-scale language models (LLMs) like those powering ChatGPT run faster, and to Germany’s ARX Robotics, which designs unmanned robots with functions ranging from heavy lifting to monitoring.
- The other two startups are British manufacturer iCOMAT, which makes lightweight materials for vehicles, and Space Forge, a Welsh company that uses the conditions of space, such as microgravity and vacuum conditions, to build semiconductors in orbit.
IMPORTANT QUOTE
“Enabling access to strategic technologies is key to ensuring a safe and prosperous future for the alliance’s one billion citizens,” said Andrea Traversone, managing partner of the fund.
ACCENT
The fund has also partnered with venture capital firms Alpine Space Ventures, OTB Ventures, Join Capital and Vsquared Ventures to support further investments in new technologies on the old continent.
