VCs are known to move in herds, so Eric Slesinger stands out a little. While most US investors are hunting for newly established AI businesses or US technology businesses, the former CIA officer is chasing defense technology agreements in Europe. In fact, Slesinger, founder of 201 businessRecently, a $ 22 million fund focused on European defense technology. Its course from the development of gadgets and software for CIA agents may be perhaps the only American VC to invest exclusively in European defense technology also seems to be prophetic.
What will someone to leave “the best first job” on the CIA to follow this particular ambition? As Slesinger said in a recent Strictlyvc Download Podcast InterviewThe answer came from the identification of a critical shift that many lost. “I left because I noticed that the private sector was playing a more and more role in this competition that I had previously realized that it was really just government competition,” Slesinger explained. “What became obvious most every day was that the private sector was playing such a big role here.”
Degrees from Stanford to Engineering and Harvard Business School, Slesinger’s background has helped prepare him to bridge the gap between defense technology and commercial businesses. But it was his willingness to go against conventional wisdom that made him interest in investors, founders and technological journalists similarly.
“I have always enjoyed going where other people tend not to want to go,” Slesinger said. “That was why I liked work so much in the CIA. Some things people say there were:” Go where others don’t go and do what they can’t do. “
As for what the US VCs are missing, there were three things in terms of Slesinger. First, “Europe has individual entrepreneurs who are just as hungry, just as highly believing, and just as smart as anywhere else in the world.” Secondly, “European governments have been waiting for a long time to re -think what their own security meant and therefore had not really taken a critical eye to it.” And thirdly, “Europe has quickly seen and will continue to be the place of the serious competition of the gray zone”, which means activities from state or non -state agencies falling between traditional peace and absolute war.
Perhaps the most stunning aspect of Slesinger’s European business was the cultural resistance that said it has faced defense investment. In 2022, after moving from the US to Madrid, the European Investor Network of Investment Network began, which now includes entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers. In 2023 Average suspensionSlesinger wrote about how VC’s European colleagues are afraid to talk about defense -related investments. Unlike America, TechCrunch told Europe’s investment in Europe “was considered uncouth, which should be done, but did not speak and certainly did not speak to a polite company on the table.” (Slesinger added quickly: “I spend a little but there is a core of truth there”)
He says that cultural hesitation resulted in “Many founders think so, deciding not to build a company in [defense] space. ”Now that is changing.
Thus, attention has been gathered by the rising defense technology companies in Epirus, including Munich -based Helsing, which is developing AI for use in Battlefields and is now estimated at more than $ 5 billion by its investors. Another up-and-corner in Slesinger’s portfolio is Delian Alliance Industries, an Athens-based outfit that develops surveillance towers to detect autonomous threats. Delian has increased so far funding of seeds But it’s a warm ticket that is definitely active with VCS.
With eight investments to date, 201 Ventures focuses on technologies facing this competition of Gray Zone, because, in the words of Slesinger, it occurs on a scale in Europe and for the next two decades. “These market divisions said:” Whether it is inefficiency of prices or a market for a market. Gray zone outbreaks are actually a good form of alpha. “
In addition to Delian, another of Slesinger’s bets is Polar fogA Swedish start that produces marine aircraft with advanced navigation capabilities. Other catering areas include underground mapping.
A challenge for funding defense technology businesses is the longest period of growth compared to traditional argument. Slesinger recognized this tension in his conversation with TechCrunch: “If you have a 10-year-old life cycle, this is a real thing to do things to try to accelerate or bend a little.”
Slesinger also believes that “European companies should be more pressured in very previous stages”.
Both are asking questions about whether his bet will pay for investors. At the same time, its early vision for a more autonomous European defense ecosystem is embraced by many other investors these days as geopolitical tensions are growing and Europe is reviewing its security arrangements.
The data published earlier this year by the NATO Innovation Fund and the Dealoom Research Group showed that European working for defense and technology increased 24% more capital in 2024 than in 2023, hitting a 2023 5.2 billion $ – even overcoming AI funding.
With President Donald Trump returning to the office in January and challenging US commitment to European defense, that number is likely to rise even higher.
