In this EU25 interview, Valentin Menedetter, General Partner at Vektor Partners, offers a deep dive into the growing relevance of dual-use and defense technologies in Europe’s venture landscape. He explains how Vektor began backing companies in this space as early as 2020—well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or today’s geopolitical urgency brought the sector into the spotlight.
Menedetter outlines why technologies with both commercial and defense applications are attracting new attention from limited partners (LPs) globally, including those from the U.S. and Asia. He emphasizes Europe’s unique advantages: top-tier engineering talent, relatively low valuations, and increasing regional urgency around sovereignty, resilience, and technological independence.
The conversation also explores how specialized knowledge and experience are crucial for identifying genuine innovation in a complex and often under-the-radar sector. Menedetter advocates for more private capital in defense tech, warns against hype-driven investing, and calls for a long-term approach to building critical infrastructure in energy, AI, edge computing, and battlefield technologies.
As private equity adapts to a prolonged high-cost environment, investors are being forced to rethink how they source deals, create value, and deploy capital. Ahead of her appearance at 0100 Europe (April 21–23), we spoke with Geraldine O’Keeffe, Partner at EQT Healthcare Growth, about how one of Europe’s leading investment platforms is transiting today’s market dynamics—across healthcare, technology, and beyond.
