National Security Strategic Investment Fund
UK government venture fund investing in dual-use defence and security technology startups
On 14 September 2026, the National Security Strategic Investment Fund backed satellite maker Open Cosmos's €300 million Series C, months after taking a stake in electric aviation firm Greenjets alongside the NATO Innovation Fund.
Last refreshed: 22 September 2026
Timeline for National Security Strategic Investment Fund
Mentioned in: Open Cosmos raises €300m, no US name
UK Startups and InnovationBackground
National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF) operates as the UK Government's venture capital vehicle for dual-use defence and security technology, run by the British Business Bank. Established in 2018, it focuses on quantum, space, AI and other emerging technology with strategic or security relevance.
It sits within the government's wider push to keep strategically important British technology, and the intellectual property behind it, under domestic or allied ownership rather than ceding control through foreign, particularly American, investment.
NSSIF typically co-invests alongside private and allied institutional capital rather than funding companies alone, giving it visibility into which British dual-use start-ups the government judges worth backing at the point private investors are also assessing them.
NSSIF backs a non-US satellite round
NSSIF joined seven other investors in Open Cosmos's 14 September round, notable for including no American name, a structure that keeps the dual-use satellite maker's ownership clear of US export-control jurisdiction . The fund is the UK Government's vehicle for backing exactly this kind of dual-use defence and security technology.
The stake follows the 2025 Spending Review's award of up to £330 million for NSSIF to invest between 2026-27 and 2029-30, giving the fund fresh capital to deploy into space, quantum and AI-adjacent companies at the moment British satellite manufacturing is attracting non-US capital.
NSSIF also backed an aviation raise
In July 2026 NSSIF took a position in electric aviation firm Greenjets alongside the NATO Innovation Fund, in the company's 21st year of trading . Pairing with a NATO-backed fund rather than a private venture investor fits NSSIF's dual-use, security-first mandate, and signals that electric aviation now sits alongside quantum, space and AI on the fund's list of strategically relevant technologies.
The two bets, in space and in electric aviation two months apart, show NSSIF deploying its £330 million allocation across more than one strategic technology sector rather than concentrating its Firepower on a single niche while the wider allocation window runs to 2030.