On September 19, 2024, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) announced its first investment in a quantum technology company. The fund led a EUR 5 million seed round in Aquark Technologies, a UK-based quantum sensing company, with additional investments from EIFO (Denmark’s export and investment fund), UKI2S (managed by Future Planet Capital), and MBDA.
Aquark was also the first company from NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) cohort to receive direct NIF investment. According to the NATO Innovation Fund, the company’s technology addresses critical infrastructure sectors including defense, telecommunications, and finance that rely on precise positioning, navigation, and timing signals.
Aquark had participated in DIANA’s Deep Tech Lab – Quantum in Copenhagen as part of the accelerator’s first cohort, selected in November 2023. The NIF is a standalone venture capital fund backed by 24 NATO Allies and deploying over EUR 1 billion in deep tech over a 15-year period.