Lakestar, a leading VC firm which has previously backed leading European tech companies like Spotify and Revolut, is aiming to raise up to $300m for a new defence fund, reports say.
In the years following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, investors have poured money into European defence startups, hitting a record high of $5.2bn in 2024, according to Dealroom data.
Lakestar founder and chairman Klaus Hommels had reportedly been pitching investors since last year, seeking to raise between $250m and $300m for the new fund, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. A source close to the company denied this, however, saying Hommels had only started raising for the fund in recent weeks.
Hommels previously told the Financial Times he planned to invest more than €100m of his own money into European defence, and has previously backed German defence startup Helsing as an angel investor
He also serves as chair of the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), which Sifted this week exclusively reported had lost its third founding partner in the space of a year.
Last year, Lakestar closed a $600m (€552m) fund to invest in European companies in the deeptech, AI, healthcare, digitalisation and fintech spaces.
