31 of the top defense tech venture capitalists to know

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Notable investments: Ursa Major, Hermeus, EnCharge AI, Tomorrow.io, Impulse Space

Why he's on the list: After leading the Silicon Valley office for 3M Ventures, Ateya took over as head of venture for RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies) in 2022. So far, it has invested in aerospace and defense startups, including rocket propulsion provider Ursa Major and hypersonic aircraft developer Hermeus.

"Our main focus is on identifying teams with outstanding technical and engineering talent and experience that have developed a disruptive vision and strategy with an actionable plan to build a scalable business," Ateya told Business Insider.

Location: Menlo Park, California

Notable investments: Palantir, Databricks, MongoDB, Anaconda

Why he's on the list: As head of investment strategy (and later President and CEO) of In-Q-Tel, the CIA's venture capital fund, Bowsher, in many ways, helped create the entire defense tech startup ecosystem. He made an early bet on Palantir, blowing the doors open for Silicon Valley techies to go after federal contracts. At the time, conventional wisdom in venture capital was that there was no point in trying to sell to the government; too slow, too much red tape, too much competition.

"I don't know how many reference calls I did for venture capitalists between 2006 and 2012 or so who were thinking about investing in Palantir that wanted to talk to me because they didn't understand the government market," Bowsher told Authority Magazine last year.

The son of a federal employee who grew up devouring spy novels, Bowsher has always been interested in the work of the government but actually cut his teeth in Silicon Valley. After graduating from Stanford, he worked for three startups and spent eight years at venture fund InterWest Partners. By combining Silicon Valley's swashbuckling ethos with a government agency's mission-driven mentality, Bowsher has helped shepherd some of the biggest defense tech success stories of the past two decades.

Location: Miami

Notable investments: Anduril, Apex, Hadrian, Rune

Why she's on the list: Boyle is the animating spirit of Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism practice. She's a former Washington Post journalist who made an impression among founders at General Catalyst, where she invested in Anduril, Relativity Space, Nova Credit, and others. In a blog post at the time of her hiring, A16z general partner David Ulevitch wrote, "when we would meet with the best companies in these areas," such as defense, safety, and national security, "we were always asked if we knew Katherine Boyle." She joined the firm in 2021.

Location: Palo Alto, California

Notable investments: Nexla, according to PitchBook

Why he's on the list: Brown spent four years working for the Department of Defense, leading the Defense Innovation Unit, which works to advance the use of commercial technology in the military. He left that role in 2022 to join Shield Capital, and he was promoted to partner in 2023.

Prior to leading the Defense Innovation Unit, Brown spent 2016 to 2018 as a Presidential Innovation Fellow working on the unit's collaboration with startups, known as DIUx. Earlier in his career, Brown spent 13 years as CEO of cybersecurity company Symantec and, before that, led Quantum Corporation, a data storage management company.

Location: London

Notable investments: Hawkeye 360, All.Space, Iceye

Why he's on the list: Brugger is the chief investment officer of Seraphim Capital, which is focused on investing in space technology. He was also an early venture capital investor in Arqit, Iceye, LeoLabs, and D-Orbit and led investments in several companies that went public, including Spire Global and AST SpaceMobile.

According to his LinkedIn profile, his "focus is on identifying and supporting from inception to exit the sector's most ambitious and fearless entrepreneurs as they aspire to harness the infinite potential of Space to turn science fiction into science fact."

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Notable investments: Mach Industries, Rangeview, Vatn, Firestorm, Extropic, Varda, Standard Nuclear

Why he's on the list: Chapman started his career in venture capital nearly 20 years ago as a fund formation lawyer. He said he "quickly realized that he was a terrible lawyer but loved what his clients were doing." Chapman went on to cofound three companies and later worked as a corporate VC before starting his own deep tech-focused firm, Alpha Bridge Ventures. But over time, Chapman said he "developed an appreciation for the importance of deep tech to the national security mission" and started focusing his efforts more on defense.

He left Alpha Bridge and took over as managing director of the Army Venture Capital Corporation, the VC arm of the US Army, After a few years, Chapman left, along with the team recruited to jump-start the AVCC, and launched the defense and national security-focused firm, Marque Ventures, in 2022.

Location: San Francisco and Scottsdale, Arizona

Notable investments: Saronic, HawkEye 360, Capella Space, Epirus

Why he's on the list: Before launching cyber-focused investment firm NightDragon in 2012, DeWalt held executive roles at three cybersecurity companies, including McAfee. The firm's name is a nod to his past—under DeWalt's leadership, McAfee was the first to expose the Night Dragon Operation, a series of nation-state cyberattacks that began in 2006.

At NightDragon, DeWalt invests in "solutions to better protect governments, organizations, and individuals," according to the firm's website. Recently, NightDragon has invested in autonomous maritime company Saronic and Epirus, which develops high-power microwave technology for countering drones and electronics.

DeWalt also serves on the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Council and is the Vice Chairman of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Advisory Council.

Location: San Mateo, Calif.

Notable investments: Radiant, Starfish Space, K2 Space, Venus Aerospace

Why he's on the list: Draper has carved out his own niche in his family's venture empire with Boost VC, the deep tech-focused firm he cofounded in 2012. Boost VC leads pre-seed rounds with $500,000 checks.

Draper has invested in sought-after defense tech companies like Starfish Space and K2 Space that aim to disrupt the government's role in emerging technologies. "In recent years I have watched as the government became more self-aware about their lack of technological innovation, and started to work hand in hand with startups rather than against them," Draper wrote in a 2021 Substack essay. "The next 10 years will be about startups aligning with governments as customers and partners to further innovation."

Location: San Francisco

Notable investments: Anduril, Mistral AI, Gitlab

Why he's on the list: Despite not being directly associated with a name-brand VC fund or a government agency, Gil — one of Silicon Valley's biggest solo capitalists — has left his mark on the defense tech sector.

In 2021, Gil personally led Anduril's $450 million Series D, which valued the company at $4.6 billion. The company, led by Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, has been one of the most prominent defense-tech darlings in recent memory, and Gil has continued to be an important backer and booster of the company.

Gil is also a prolific investor in the emerging generative AI space, which he believes will have far-reaching impacts on every facet of society, including defense and intelligence use cases. He's also circumspect about the dangers of this nascent technology.

"The first question I asked Anduril when I met them — and it was just the founders — was how do you think about the ethics, and how do you think about what's permissible and isn't?" Gil told Business Insider.

Location: Menlo Park, Calif.

Notable investments: Anduril, Hidden Level, Scale AI, SpaceX, Vannevar Labs

Why he's on the list: Glein cofounded venture capital firm DFJ Growth in the early aughts and currently serves as its managing partner. At DFJ, he has invested in older defense tech companies like Anduril and newer entrants like Scale AI, the data training startup that recently announced a contract with the Department of Defense. Recently, he invested in Hidden Level's Series C, which develops counter-UAS technology.

"They are helping restore our advantage on the modern battlefield and improving airspace safety, leveraging their unique technology to provide the critical, real-time intelligence needed to covertly intercept inbound airborne threats," Glein wrote on X about Hidden Level. "This capability is crucial to protecting our forward deployed troops, defense assets, and airports in a world where drones and UAS have become a major hazard."

Location: Seattle

Notable investments: Shield AI, Vannevar Labs, STOKE Space, Saronic, REGENT

Why he's on the list: Gwak was awarded a Purple Heart and Combat Action Ribbon for his service in the US Marine Corps before getting into VC. He cut his teeth in finance at Credit Suisse and The Carlyle Group and joined In-Q-Tel, the not-for-profit venture firm funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, after his time in the Marine Corps.

After four years as a partner at In-Q-Tel, he joined Point72 Private Investments, the private investing arm of the hedge fund Point72 Asset Management. He oversees the defense tech and growth investment teams at Point72 Ventures. "Today's emergent technologies have the potential to shift the global superpower balance, Gwak told Business Insider. "The startups of today that bring those technologies to bear will be the defense primes of tomorrow."

Locations: New York, Washington, DC

Notable investments: Radiant Nuclear, Havoc AI, Standard Nuclear, Scout AI, Firehawk Aerospace, Maybell Quantum, Firestorm Labs, EpiSci

Why he's on the list: Following a decadelong US Army career where he served as an infantry and Special Forces Officer — including as Troop Commander in the US Central Command's Counter-Terrorism Crisis Response Force — Hendrix earned his MBA from Columbia Business School and later his master's degree in law from the George Washington University Law School.

His first foray into a civilian career was as an analyst at asset management firm Blackstone, where he worked for two years before founding his own venture capital firm, Decisive Point, in 2018. Since starting the firm, which focuses on critical technologies for defense, energy, and infrastructure, Hendrix has invested in startups, including Radiant Nuclear, which is building a portable nuclear microreactor to replace diesel generators, and Firestorm, which builds unmanned aerial systems.

While defense tech plays a big role in Hendrix's portfolio, he told Business Insider that the technology is also important to revitalize America's manufacturing industry.

"Today, we are also seeing a lot of interesting opportunities in adjacent sectors like logistics, advanced materials and manufacturing, and nuclear energy," he said.

Location: San Francisco

Notable investments: Cylance, D-Wave, Swarm Technologies

Why he's on the list: Hoyem leads the investment team at In-Q-Tel, the venture capital fund for the CIA and broader intelligence community. The fund has been an early backer of some of the most successful defense tech startups in recent memory. Its close intertwined relationship with the US intelligence establishment gives it unique insight into the problems and processes of highly secretive organizations. Hoyem has spent years as an essential liaison between government stakeholders and Silicon Valley.

He spent over a decade as a venture investor and can move seamlessly between the intelligence community, the venture world, and the startup ecosystem. Hoyem specializes in helping startups that have never worked with the federal government navigate the complex process of developing technology for defense and intelligence applications.

Location: San Diego

Notable investments: Merlin Labs, Kodiak Robotics, Ursa Major, Astranis, WireScreen, Firestorm, Solugen

Why he's on the list: An Olympian, Navy SEAL, and now a venture capitalist — Larsen Jensen has always been a competitor. He competed and won silver and bronze in freestyle swimming at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, respectively, and holds the American record in the 400-meter freestyle. He later became a Navy SEAL, and then went on to business school at Stanford.

After stints as a VC at Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed, Jensen founded early-stage firm Harpoon Ventures in 2018. The firm focuses on enterprise tech "critical to national security and democracy." The firm manages $300 million in AUM and has invested in defense tech, cybersecurity, AI, and frontier technology.

Jensen said he was introduced early in his career to VC by the cofounders of coaching platform startup BetterUp, Alexi Robichaux and Eduardo Medina. After witnessing their success, he was "inspired to delve deeper into the venture ecosystem."

Location: San Francisco

Notable investments: SpaceX, Anduril, K2 Space

Why he's on the list: Kriessmann is a partner at investment firm Altimeter and an Anduril and K2 Space board member. Altimeter recently doubled down on its investment in K2 Space, with Kriessmann co-leading its Series B.

"We are at the dawn of a Space Supercycle, where new launch vehicles and reduced-cost, reliable access to space are transforming the entire market," Kriessmann wrote on X following the fundraise. "K2 Space is taking advantage of this paradigm shift by mass-manufacturing high-power multi-mission satellites that deliver unprecedented capabilities and enable the multi-orbit constellations desired by national security and commercial customers."

Previously, Kriessman worked at Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures.

Location: San Francisco

Notable investments: Saronic, Onebrief, Anduril, Helsing, Nominal, Vannevar Labs, Andesite, JEH Aerospace

Why he's on the list: Kwan spent over two decades as a tech banker at Morgan Stanley, spending his last six years there heading its West Coast team. He moved over to General Catalyst in 2021 to become managing director of its Global Resilience Team.

"We look across the entire defense ecosystem and invest in companies that unlock multiplier effects to modernize our defense, intelligence, and industrial base capabilities," Kwan told Business Insider.

One of those companies is Anduril, where Kwan is a board observer. Now he's looking for the next Palmer Luckey, one of Anduril's cofounders.

"In founders, we look for mission, intentionality, technical depth of the team, commitment to responsible innovation, and the ability to radically collaborate with government customers," Kwan said.

Location: Austin

Notable investments: Oculus, Guardant Health, Oscar, Anduril

Why he's on the list: Serial founder and investor Lonsdale co-founded Palantir in 2004, soon after graduating from Stanford University. He founded 8VC in 2015, which recently announced it raised $998 million for its sixth fund, nearly double its previous fundraise.

Lonsdale moved 8VC from the Bay Area to Austin in 2020, and wrote on X that Texas was "more tolerant of ideological diversity than SF."

In recent years, after his work at Palantir, Lonsdale has emerged as a prolific defense tech startup founder and investor. He cofounded Epirus, which develops technology to counter unmanned aircraft systems, through 8VC's Build program, invested in autonomous surface vessels startup Saronic Technologies, and was an early backer of Anduril.

Location: San Francisco

Notable investments: Maxar Technologies, Looking Glass, Aerospike

Why he's on the list: The founder and former CEO of In-Q-Tel, a VC fund backed by the CIA to connect the intelligence agency with the startup community, Louie is now the cofounder and partner at VC fund Alsop Louie Partners and the founder of the nonprofit America's Frontier Fund.

Louie, a director on the Maxar Technologies and Aerospike boards, is also a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and the US Department of State's Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

Location: Menlo Park, Calif.

Notable investments: Anduril, Saronic, Castelion, Helsing, K2 Space

Why he's on the list: Love is a partner at Lightspeed, where he invests in autonomous systems, defense, manufacturing, and space startups. A former US Army captain with leadership roles and a deployment to northern Iraq, Love's work at Lightspeed is informed by his military service. Love got his MBA at Stanford and joined Lightspeed's frontier tech practice after leaving the military.

Love recently co-led Lightspeed's investment in K2 Space, a satellite manufacturing startup, and has also invested in notable defense tech startups like Anduril and Saronic.

Location: New York

Notable investments: Unstructured.io, Red 6, Picogrid, Antares Industries, Edgescale AI, Sphere Semi

Why he's on the list: Mathias forged his path as a VC while touring as the drummer for his rock band, Filligar. Working closely with the US Department of State, Filligar was dispatched to regions including Russia, the Middle East, South America, and North Africa to strengthen cultural connections, Mathias told Business Insider.

After his band days, he started in venture by landing a student fellowship at .406 Ventures. He then worked at VC firm Bertelsmann Investments, where he was embedded in the European and Chinese startup ecosystems. He's now a partner at Alumni Ventures, "overseeing investments in critical strategic technologies for the United States." Mathias is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Council on Germany.

"I embrace venture capital's original self: as an asset class for the biggest ideas for the most consequential and timeless of challenges," he told Business Insider. "Defense is one of those challenges."

Location: Austin

Notable investments: Palantir, Saronic, Epirus, Chaos, CX2, Gallatin AI, iCOMAT

Why he's on the list: Moore was employee number one and director of operators at Palantir, where he still sits on the board of directors. He also cofounded social media analytics company Backplane and cloud automation startup NodePrime, which was acquired by Ericsson in 2016.

As an investor, Moore has invested in over 50 seed-stage companies as both an angel investor and on behalf of 8VC, where he has been a managing partner since 2017. At 8VC, he says he looks for founders with the longer-term outlook defense startups require.

"There's a unique type of founder who's not sort of just hacking something together and then jumping around every four years, which is the Silicon Valley ethos," Moore said on a panel in 2023. "Is this guy going to work on this when he's 25 — is he going to work on it when he's 55? I want someone who's going to because it's their whole life, and they don't have anything else."

Location: Washington, D.C.

Notable investments: Overland AI, Rune, Starfish Space, Apex

Why he's on the list: Morales runs Point72 Ventures' defense tech practice, which he joined in 2020, leading coveted fundraises like autonomous-driving-tech startup Overland AI's Series A, and satellite-servicing startup Starfish Space's Series B.

As a former F/A-18 Super Hornet Weapons Systems Officer in the US Navy and a graduate of the Naval Academy, investing in defense tech is personal for Morales. He also holds an MBA and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an investment banker in Goldman Sachs's technology, media, and telecommunications practice, according to LinkedIn.

Location: Bethesda, Maryland

Notable investments: Elroy Air, Hawkeye 360, Heilcity Space, X-Bow

Why he's on the list: As the executive director of Lockheed Martin Ventures, John Christopher "Chris" Moran is in charge of the defense behemoth's venture strategy.

In 2022, Lockheed Martin doubled the size of its VC fund from $200 million to $400 million so it could make larger investments and speed up "defense innovation through investments in growing tech companies."

The firm has made over 100 investments since 2007, according to PitchBook data.

Location: Dallas

Notable investments: Saronic, CHAOS, Castelion, Gallatin AI, Firestorm

Why he's on the list: Moses founded Silent Ventures to invest in founders of early-stage aerospace, defense, and national security startups. Since launching his venture fund in late 2022, it's invested in startups, including Firestorm, which builds uncrewed aerial systems, and Saronic, an autonomous surface vessel builder for Western naval and maritime forces.

While Moses has long been in the startup world — he founded AI content-moderation startup Spectrum Labs and corporate tax software MainStreet — building Silent Ventures marks his full-time foray into the defense tech world. Before founding the firm, Moses invested across verticals, including B2B software and manufacturing, as an angel investor.

Location: Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina

Notable investments: SpaceX, Anduril, Umbra

Why he's on the list: A former infantry and combat engineer officer in the US Marine Corps, Manchester and his pre-seed and seed stage firm Champion Hill Capital have backed some of the hottest startups in defense tech and space, including SpaceX, Anduril, and Umbra.

Before launching his firm, Manchester also had investing roles at Foundation Capital and Trubridge Capital Partners. In 2023, Manchester addressed generalist VCs' growing interest in defense tech.

"Defense investing is the ultimate form of mission investing," he told TechCrunch. "Defense investors from decades ago are the reason why this article isn't being written in Russian. It's a great thing that the category has new entrants."

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Notable investments: Hawkeye 360, Howso, Apex, Albedo, Elroy Air, Resilience

Why he's on the list: Shah has been an F-16 fighter pilot with the US Air Force since 2000, and his current work at Shield Capital is centered on connecting Silicon Valley to the Pentagon. Since joining the firm in 2020, Shah has invested in startups, including cyber-insurance startup Resilience — he's also the company's cofounder — and Hawkeye 360, a satellite startup that maps radio frequency emissions for defense, maritime, and global protection purposes. Before Shield, Shah was the managing partner of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit, the military's innovation arm intended to connect it with commercial, cutting-edge technology.

Shah told Business Insider that he looks for founders who have grit because founding a company is one of the hardest things a person can do outside combat.

"Founding a deep tech company is especially challenging," he said. "We seek to back founders so passionate and dedicated to their mission that they will run through walls to succeed."

Location: Charleston, South Carolina

Notable investments: Capella Space, Primer

Why he's on the list: At Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology Fund, Tague invests in and supports companies serving the defense and commercial sectors. He's added promising upstarts to the fund's portfolio, such as the rapidly growing satellite manufacturer Capella Space.

Before joining the firm, Tague worked at In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit strategic investor for the national intelligence community and its allies, where he established offices in London and Sydney and oversaw an applied research group focused on national security.

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Notable investments: Anduril, Celestial AI, Gecko Robotics, Lambda Labs, Shield AI, Saronic

Why he's on the list: Tull made a fortune selling his film company to a Chinese conglomerate several years ago and now uses his money and influence to support defense-focused startups giving the nation and its allies a technological edge.

With a hefty war chest at his fingertips, Tull is one of the most active investors in the defense-tech category. He's already corralled billions of dollars from backers like Guggenheim Partners for his US Innovative Technology fund.

Location: New York

Notable investments: Air Space Intelligence, Anduril, Flock Safety, Prepared, Radiant, Skydio

Why he's on the list: Ulevitch helped kick-start the American Dynamism practice at Andreessen Horowitz alongside Katherine Boyle, spurring a wave of investment and support for startups advancing the national interest. Before A16z, Ulevitch founded OpenDNS, a cloud-based security service that was sold to Cisco in 2015 for $635 million.

Ulevitch has more financial firepower than ever before. Last year, A16z unveiled a new $600 million American Dynamism fund for investing in aerospace, defense, public safety, education, housing, supply chain, industrials, and manufacturing.

Location: Damascus, Maryland

Notable investments: Anduril, Palantir, Shield AI, Kodiak Robotics, Gecko Robotics

Why he's on the list: As a nearly three-decade Navy veteran, Walter may be better suited than just about anyone else on this list to understand the real-world impact of advanced technology on the battlefield. Throughout his storied federal career, he oversaw the CIA's innovation and technology sourcing strategy, advised the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and deployed to Afghanistan. He would go on to lead Northrop Grumman's in-house venture investment where he brought his years of military and government experience to bear on developing innovative new technologies of defense and intelligence applications.

Now, he serves as managing director at Marlinspike, a Washington, DC-based, veteran-led venture capital fund that focuses on technologies solving complex national security issues. Marlinspike has backed some of the biggest and most successful defense tech companies, including Anduril and Palantir.

Location: New York

Notable investments: Anduril, Saildrone, Hadrian, Varda, Nominal

Why he's on the list: Wolfe cofounded Lux Capital in 2000 and has become known for backing moonshot companies in areas like biotech, artificial intelligence, aerospace, and defense. Before entering VC, Wolfe worked in investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney and capital markets at Merrill Lynch.

Wolfe has been a longtime defense tech investor and an early backer of defense tech standouts like Anduril and the space infrastructure startup Varda. While the industry hasn't reached its peak, Wolfe is a staunch believer in its future.

"Standout companies (like Anduril) are rapidly attracting talent and capital, turning product launches into programs of record that are reflected in rising revenue and valuations," he told BI. "This momentum is expected to spur the creation of adjacent ventures and attract additional capital, driving industry growth, and we expect dedicated 'defensetech' fund-of-funds to follow."

Darius Rafieyan contributed to an earlier version of this list.