NATO unveils investor-innovator connection platform

NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) has launched a new platform – Capital Network – intended to connect “trusted” investors with assured innovators.

“The Network is a curated, trust based environment designed to reduce security, reputational, and syndication risks for both innovators and investors,” a spokesperson for DIANA told DSEI Gateway on 12 May.

Launched in early May, the platform allows investors to connect with the DIANA portfolio of companies through a “secure digital platform,” the spokesperson said, enabling “structured exchanges and introductions, rather than open, unmediated contact.”

DIANA sits within the wider NATO agency, aiming to better harness dual-use innovations for defence. Each year, it runs competitions built around specific problem statements, inviting industry to compete for funding to help scale promising technologies, alongside direct mentoring and access to test sites.

By launching this platform, DIANA aims to help reduce uncertainty within the complex defence ecosystem, offering investors a streamlined way to discover emerging technologies already de-risked by the agency, while helping innovators access a trusted pool of investors.

Suspicious investments

By offering access to a vetted pool of investors, the platform aims to counter a growing risk: investment is increasingly being used as a ‘backdoor’ to access sensitive technologies.

China is widely known to adopt this approach, recognising that European SMEs and startups frequently struggle to secure capital to scale their capabilities.

Which organisations can apply?

The Network is open to a broad range of NATO-based capital entities, including:

• Venture capital funds
• Angel investor groups and associations
• Private offices and private equity funds
• Banks from NATO-allied nations
• Any other relevant financial body that has the legal authority to provide capital funding to DIANA

Investors interested in getting involved will undergo screening and due diligence processes before they are onboarded. There is no fee to participate.

The application, screening, admission, and engagement processes are currently underway, the spokesperson said, with the NATO Innovation Fund being one of the first to sign on.

Several other entities are in the pipeline, with more expected to follow in the “near future”.