Defence investing jobs: the buyside firms that hire bankers, and generals
It’s never really a good time to work in defence, but as far as getting funding for your defence startup goes, it’s hard to beat this year. DefenseNews reported last month that the value of defence venture capital (VC) reached a record $49bn, up from $27bn last year. But where exactly is that money coming from?
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It’s complicated. Defence is a touchy industry. Edward Crawford, co-founder and co-CEO of Coltala Holdings LLC, told S&P Global in March last year that "if you're entirely defence, you're going to have to ride through some cycles, and that can be difficult for you.”
Private equity firms are a bit touchy about that, and overwhelmingly prefer dual-use firms, which have both civilian and defensive purposes. S&P Global noted that consulting firm Bain & Co. said in a note 2024 that “there are relatively few examples of scale private equity investments that primarily serve defense markets.”
VC firms, however, have fewer such qualms. And with around $200bn of the US military’s budget going to procurement of equipment, it’s a rich vein to strike. And with European defence budgets also reaching all-time highs, it’s a profitable time to work in defence.
Here are the biggest (specialist) venture capital firms currently involved in defence.
AE Industrial Partners
With $7.5bn in assets under management (AuM) and 109 employees, Boca Raton-based AE Industrial Partners (AEI) is one of the biggest players in defense VC. The firm hires some pretty typical finance industry professionals - in December it picked up Brett Johnson, a VP from asset manager Exome that also spent two years at boutique investment bank Lazard. It also has a number of interns.
One of AEI’s most notable investments was in Gryphon Technologies, a “premier engineering and technical services provider” that has been working with the DoD in America for more than two decades.
Shield Capital
Shield Capital is one of the more military-heavy firms on the list. The San Francisco-based firm boasts US generals, secretaries of defence, and a NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe on its advisory board. Its operating partner, Pat O’Reilly, who joined in June last year, was a Lieutenant General in the US Army. Many of its “regular” staff, such as Akhil Iyer and David Rothzeid, both principals at the firm, have extensive military experiences. Despite that, it still offers internships like a “normal” financial services firm.
Most of Shield Capital’s portfolio is small. Code Metal, for example, is an AI platform that translates code – from C++ or Rust or whatever else into “production-ready code” such as Python.
IQT
IQT is an interesting beast. It’s a not-for-profit firm based in Arlington with a budget of around $100m per year from Congress, and a mission to make sure the US’ intelligence agencies are always up to date with cutting edge technology. Despite the mission statement, it hires a lot of rather normal financiers, such as Connor Reese, a former Alvarez & Marsal consultant doing an MBA as a venture fellow in Arlington, Virginia. It also offers internships.
IQT has a history of impressive investments. It was an investor in both GitLab and Palantir, among 800 others.
Marque Ventures
Marque Ventures is pretty honest about what it is. Founded in 2022, the San Francisco-based firm has a relatively clear investment threshold: “a clear path to defense application”, and “emerging capabilities for use by the U.S. and allies”. A number of its investment staff are US veterans, such as Todd Coulard, a helicopter and drone pilot with over 16 years of experience who currently serves as a principal at the firm.
Some of Marque’s biggest investments include Mach Industries, an unmanned vehicle manufacturer developing something called the “Viper”, a "strike airctaft designed to redefine air combat."
Seraphim Capital
A pioneering space investor, London-based Seraphim Capital has around 145 investment credits and 5 IPOs to its name. Its staff has a wide variety in their backgrounds, with consultants, professors, journalists, and equity researchers all represented.
Seraphim Capital’s investments are deeply varied. One of the most interesting is the delightfully named Zeno Power, a power company producing, among other things, nuclear batteries for “reliable, clean energy from deep sea to deep space.”
Silent Ventures
Silent Ventures was started by Jackson Moses, a former Cisco market research analyst and rare whisky collector. He’s had a number of notable investments, including a Series A with space station manufacturer Axiom Space, as well as a full suite of Lord of the Rings inspired names: Erebor, Durin, and Anduril. Only Palantir is missing from his collection. It's based in Dallas.
Champion Hill Ventures
Champion Hill Ventures was founded by two marine corps veterans, Josh Manchester and Robert Haddick. Before starting Champion Hill, Manchester was a senior investment associate at VC firm TrueBridge, and before joining, Haddick was head of proprietary trading and research at the Fremont Group, the family office of the Bechtel family.
The firm has invested in a number of prominent space & defense companies including SpaceX, and was a First Round investor in Anduril, a $30bn defence tech firm. Champion Hill is based in North Carolina.
Marlinspike
Based in Washington DC, Marlinspike is a dual-focus VC firm focused on artificial intelligence, aerospace, robotics, and cybersecurity. It’s one of the more normal firms on the list – it hires interns, for example – but it also boasts the military credits of its leadership – VP Nick Snoad, for example, who spent four years as a consultant before joining the firm, and five years in the US army as an operations manager before that.
Marlinspike has invested in a number of defense darlings, including engineer manufacturer Volund Manufacturing and telescope manufacturer Observable Space.
Lockheed Martin Ventures
Lockheed Martin Ventures is a unique part of this list. For one, as the name suggests, it is a subsidiary of the aerospace giant. It only manages around $400m in AuM in an evergreen fund that started in 2007. It’s primarily staffed by regular finance people, such as Sam Stonberg, a senior investment manager at the firm who was previously in JPMorgan’s diversified industrials team.
It’s invested in a number of companies, which understandably haven’t outshone the Lockheed Martin brand themselves. An example is Agile Space Industries, an engineering firm focused on developing in-space propulsion systems using 3D printing.
RTX Ventures
Much like Lockheed Martin Ventures, RTX Ventures is the VC arm of RTX, formerly known as Raytheon. It employs pretty typical financiers – for example, Will Yeats, an associate director within the team that started his career in Wells Fargo’s investment banking team before moving to Booz Allen Hamilton, a cybersecurity consultancy.
Some of BTX Ventures’ investments include Ursa Major technologies, a rocket engine manufacturer.
Others
With defense having such a lucrative and reliable market when mature, it’s far beyond the domain of just boutique firms (or the internal operations of a few military-industrial giants). Noted firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and, with $90bn and $35bn in AuM respectively, have significant defense investment teams.
Andreessen Horowitz’s spectacularly named American Dynamism team, which was founded by Katherine Boyle and David Ulevitch, is a good example, having invested in now-established defense contractors such as Anduril and Apex Space.
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