With their new €500 million fund, Germany’s DTCP raises the bar for European defense and resilience capital
Hamburg-based DTCP, a global investment management platform with more than €3 billion in AUM, today announced the launch of the €500 million fund ‘Project Liberty’, its eighth fund and its first dedicated exclusively to defense, security, and resilience technologies.
The fund is independently managed by DTCP and targets institutional investors, family offices and corporate investors. Its objective is to support the growth of European defense and dual-use technology companies and to contribute to Europe’s technological capability and security resilience.
Vicente Vento, CEO of DTCP, comments: “Project Liberty represents a highly consistent extension of our role as a specialist investment platform. Defense and resilience have been converging with technology and infrastructure investing for more than a decade – precisely where DTCP, through DTCP Growth and DTCP Infra, has deep expertise and numerous touchpoints with the defense industry. There are few areas that fit more naturally with our existing platforms.”
Across 2025–2026, EU-Startups coverage shows steadily increasing capital flows into European defence, dual-use and adjacent cybersecurity technologies, albeit largely at early and mid-stage levels.
Germany saw Project Q secure a €7.5 million Seed round to expand its Internet-of-Defence (IoD) platform. In Northern and Eastern Europe, Lithuania-based Repsense raised €2 million to scale its NATO-deployed threat-detection analytics, while drone developer Monopulse secured €1.12 million to expand NATO-grade UAV production.
At the growth and infrastructure end of the spectrum, Dutch DefenseTech company Destinus added €50 million in bank financng to support autonomous aerospace systems, bringing its total capital raised close to €400 million.
Alongside company-level rounds, EU-Startups has also reported on the emergence of dedicated defence-focused investment vehicles, including Keen Venture Partners’ defence tech fund targeting €125 million, and Expeditions Fund II, which raised over €100 million for investments spanning cybersecurity, AI, quantum and defence technologies.
Taken together, these announcements account for approximately €300 million in disclosed capital and illustrate a market where most funding remains fragmented across smaller rounds and thematic funds.
Against this backdrop, DTCP’s €500 million Project Liberty stands out as a materially larger, later-stage-capable vehicle, signalling a shift from predominantly Seed and early-growth financing towards more substantial pools of capital aimed at scaling European defence and dual-use technology companies.
“For decades, Europe has underinvested in defense while geopolitical risks have steadily increased. In parallel, we are witnessing a profound technological transformation across the entire value chain – from surveillance and sensing to software-defined systems, advanced materials, autonomous platforms, and satellite and communications infrastructure.
“As major Western governments have now embarked on a long-term and irreversible path to modernise their defense capabilities, we are highly confident in the structural growth prospects of this sector for decades to come,” adds Vicente.
Founded in 2015, DTCP is a global investment management platform. The firm manages approximately €3 billion across multiple technology and infrastructure funds and has completed more than 50 investments worldwide, including over 19 successful exits.
Its existing portfolio has a strong focus on cybersecurity and AI companies, including Arctic Wolf, Axonius, Zenity, Anomali and Ox Security. This is complemented by dual-use companies such as the German DefenseTech unicorn Quantum Systems.
While Europe remains the clear investment focus, ‘Project Liberty’ may also selectively invest in defense and security technologies from NATO member states and close allies where such investments are strategically relevant to European security interests.
This comes one year after DTCP raised €420 million for their growth fund.
Thomas Preuß, Managing Partner at DTCP and Chief Investment Officer of ‘Project Liberty’: “We named the fund Project Liberty because it is about more than capital alone. Technological capability is a core prerequisite for Europe’s sovereignty, security, and democratic stability. Our objective is to support the development of a strong European security architecture through targeted investments in scalable, high-performance technologies.
“At the same time, Project Liberty follows a clear, return-driven investment approach. We combine capital with deep operational expertise, an international network, and long-standing experience working with industrial partners and public-sector stakeholders. In this sector, access, governance, and the ability to scale are critical – and this is where we believe DTCP brings distinct value as a long-term, active investor.”
With ‘Project Liberty’, DTCP is actively investing in European defense and dual-use technology companies across Series A to C financing stages. The fund plans to make investments in up to 30 companies, with an average investment size of approximately €20 million.
The investment focus is on companies that complement existing defense and security systems or advance them through new technological approaches. Key areas of focus include software solutions, cyber defense, AI and autonomous systems.
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