The €1bn NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) has seen its third partner leave the firm in roughly a year.
The NIF, which is backed by 24 NATO allies and launched its fund in the summer of 2023, invests in deeptech and defence startups across Europe and the NATO countries.
But the fund has struggled to retain senior talent. As of November, two of the fund’s five founding members, managing partner Andrea Traversone and founding partner Thorsten Claus, had left. Now partner Chris O’Connor, who was one of the founding team, has departed the fund as of June, according to his LinkedIn.
O'Connor told Sifted he is launching a new deeptech-focused fund, adding he is "proud of my work helping to build the NATO Innovation Fund and drive growth across the defence, security and resilience ecosystem."
It’s a tumultuous start for the fund at a time when defence tech is becoming increasingly popular among VCs. The NIF focuses on dual use startups — those with both military and commercial applications — as well as deeptech VC funds.
The NIF's backed a number of VCs including OTB Ventures and Vsquared Ventures. It’s also written cheques to startups including German unmanned robotics company ARX Robotics and German spacetech Isar Aerospace.
NIF spokesperson Amalia Kontesi told Sifted in a statement that "We are grateful to Chris for all of his contributions to the NATO Innovation Fund since our founding and look forward to seeing him contribute to the ecosystem in his new role."
Prior to becoming a partner at the NIF, O’Connor, who is an American, was a partner at US-based early-stage VC Harpoon Ventures, and was in the US airforce.
NIF’s remaining partners are Kelly Chen and Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky.
