In a world where most American venture capitalists are laser-focused on Silicon Valley’s AI startups or U.S.-based defense unicorns, Eric Slesinger is charting a different course—one that leads straight to Europe. A former CIA officer turned VC, Slesinger has quietly raised a $22 million fund, 201 Ventures, dedicated entirely to early-stage European defense tech startups.
While many VCs tend to follow the crowd, Slesinger is going where others won’t. After years of building tools for intelligence operatives, he noticed something others missed: the growing role of the private sector in national defense. “What used to be strictly government-to-government is now a contest where the private sector has a real seat at the table,” he said in a recent interview. That realization led him to walk away from what he calls “the best first job ever” at the CIA and relocate to Madrid to scout European founders tackling modern-day security threats.
Slesinger isn’t just looking for startups with shiny tech—he’s targeting what he calls gray zone competition. These are geopolitical tensions that fall short of war but still pose national security risks, and they’re increasingly playing out across the European continent. From misinformation to cyber threats to autonomous surveillance, Slesinger believes this space is ripe with overlooked opportunities—and inefficiencies that savvy investors can turn into long-term alpha.
Why Betting on European Defense Tech Was a Contrarian Move, Until Now
When Slesinger launched 201 Ventures, he found himself confronting not just regulatory hurdles, but cultural ones. In his view, Europe’s investment scene treated defense tech like a taboo. “It was seen as uncouth, something to do—but not talk about,” he said. That silence often discouraged founders from even entering the space.
To break the ice, he launched the European Defense Investor Network in 2022, building a coalition of founders, funders, and policymakers who shared his belief that Europe needed to get serious about defense innovation. The tide has since turned, thanks in part to the NATO Innovation Fund—a $1 billion multi-country venture capital initiative created in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. It’s one of 201 Ventures’ backers and has helped inject legitimacy and capital into the continent’s emerging defense ecosystem.
Now, European defense startups are grabbing headlines. Take Munich-based Helsing, for instance, whose AI-powered battlefield software has catapulted it to a $5 billion valuation. Or Athens-based Delian Alliance Industries, a 201 Ventures portfolio company developing surveillance towers to detect autonomous threats. Another of Slesinger’s bets, Polar Mist, hails from Sweden and is building next-gen maritime drones with advanced navigation tech. Other areas of interest include hypersonics and subsurface mapping—technologies once reserved for governments but now being fast-tracked by agile startups.
Slesinger admits the path isn’t without friction. Defense tech typically involves longer development cycles than consumer software, and that clashes with the standard 10-year venture fund life. But he’s confident those timelines can be managed—and even offer an advantage. “These market dislocations—whether due to pricing inefficiencies or state-level intervention—are where opportunity lives,” he says.
With $5.2 billion raised by European defense tech startups in 2024—a 24% increase over the previous year and more than AI—Slesinger’s early move no longer looks so contrarian.
As the landscape shifts, Eric Slesinger may no longer be the only American VC betting on European defense tech, but he was one of the first. And in venture capital, timing is everything.
