DTCP: € 500 million fund for defense and security tech in Europe

Hamburg/ Frankfurt/ Berlin/ Luxem­bourg — DTCP, a global invest­ment manage­ment plat­form with more than €3 billion in assets under manage­ment, announ­ced the launch of Project Liberty, its eighth fund and the first dedi­ca­ted exclu­si­vely to defense, secu­rity and resi­li­ence tech­no­lo­gies. YPOG acted as legal advi­sor to DTCP on the launch of Project Liberty. With a target volume of EUR 500 million, Project Liberty is the largest priva­tely mana­ged venture capi­tal fund in Europe focu­sed exclu­si­vely on invest­ments in this segment. 

The fund is inde­pendently mana­ged by DTCP and is aimed at insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, family offices and corpo­rate inves­tors. The aim is to support the growth of high-performing Euro­pean defense and dual-use tech­no­logy compa­nies and to contri­bute to Euro­pe’s long-term tech­no­lo­gi­cal perfor­mance and secu­rity resilience. 

While Europe remains the clear invest­ment focus, Project Liberty can also selec­tively invest in defense and secu­rity tech­no­lo­gies of NATO member states and close allies when these invest­ments are of stra­te­gic importance to Euro­pean secu­rity interests.

DTCP’s exis­ting port­fo­lio alre­ady includes defense and secu­rity tech­no­logy compa­nies such as Quan­tum Systems, Anomali and Axonius.

Vicente Vento, CEO of DTCP, commen­ted: “Project Liberty repres­ents a highly consis­tent exten­sion of our role as a specia­li­zed invest­ment plat­form. Defense and resi­li­ence have been conver­ging with tech­no­logy and infra­struc­ture invest­ments for more than a decade-precis­­ely where DTCP has deep exper­tise and multi­ple touch­points with the defense indus­try through DTCP Growth and DTCP Infra. There are few areas that fit more natu­rally with our exis­ting platforms. 

At the same time, we see an attrac­tive long-term invest­ment oppor­tu­nity. For deca­des, Europe has inves­ted too little in defense, while geopo­li­ti­cal risks have steadily increased. At the same time, we are expe­ri­en­cing profound tech­no­lo­gi­cal change across the entire value chain — from surveil­lance and sensor tech­no­logy to soft­­ware-defi­­ned systems, advan­ced mate­ri­als, auto­no­mous plat­forms and satel­lite and commu­ni­ca­ti­ons infrastructure. 

Now that the major Western govern­ments have embarked on a long-term and irrever­si­ble path to moder­nize their defence capa­bi­li­ties, we are very confi­dent about the struc­tu­ral growth pros­pects of this sector for the coming decades.”

DTCP expands its defense tech­no­logy invest­ments with new fund

DTCP has been successfully inves­t­ing in IT and secu­rity tech­no­lo­gies for more than a decade. Its exis­ting port­fo­lio is heavily focu­sed on cyber­se­cu­rity and AI compa­nies, inclu­ding Arctic Wolf, Axonius, Zenity, Anomali and Ox Secu­rity. This is comple­men­ted by dual-use compa­nies such as German defense tech­no­logy unicorn Quantensysteme. 

These invest­ments unders­core DTCP’s proven exper­tise in buil­ding and scaling tech­­no­­logy-driven busi­nesses at the inter­sec­tion of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, secu­rity and infrastructure.

Thomas Preuß, Mana­ging Part­ner at DTCP and Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer of Projekt Liberty: “We named the fund Projekt Liberty because it is about more than just capi­tal. Tech­no­lo­gi­cal perfor­mance is a basic prere­qui­site for Euro­pe’s sove­reig­nty, secu­rity and demo­cra­tic stability.” 

Up to 30 invest­ments in defense tech­no­logy compa­nies planned

Project Liber­tyDTCP actively invests in Euro­pean defense and dual-use tech­no­logy compa­nies in all Series A to C finan­cing stages. The fund plans to invest in up to 30 compa­nies, with an average invest­ment size of appro­xi­m­ately €20 million. 

The invest­ment focus is on compa­nies that supple­ment exis­ting defense and secu­rity systems or advance them with new tech­no­lo­gi­cal approa­ches. The main areas of focus include soft­ware solu­ti­ons, cyber defense, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and auto­no­mous systems. 

About DTCP

DTCP is a global invest­ment manage­ment plat­form foun­ded in 2015. 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.
DTCP’s growth port­fo­lio includes compa­nies such as Groq (Nvidia), Cognigy (Nice), LeanIX (SAP), Signa­vio (SAP), Auth0 (Okta), Fastly (IPO), Pipedrive (Vista Equity Part­ners) and Quan­tum Systems. DTCP has offices in Hamburg, Frank­furt, Berlin, Luxem­bourg, London, San Fran­cisco and Tel Aviv. — www.dtcp.capital

DTCP has a long track record at the inter­sec­tion of tech­no­logy, secu­rity and infra­struc­ture. The exis­ting port­fo­lio includes compa­nies from the cyber­se­cu­rity, AI and defense tech sectors, inclu­ding Quan­tum Systems, which has alre­ady advi­sed YPOG on seve­ral finan­cing rounds and acqui­si­ti­ons. With Project Liberty, DTCP is bund­ling its exper­tise in the defense sector for the first time in an inde­pen­dent, thema­ti­cally focu­sed fund vehicle. 

Advi­sor DTCP: YPOG

Jens Kretz­schmann (Lead, Funds), Part­ner, Berlin
Lenn­art Lorenz (Regu­la­tory), Part­ner, Hamburg
Andreas Korten­dick (Funds), Part­ner, Cologne
Robert Schramm (Funds), Asso­cia­ted Part­ner, Berlin
Martin Braun (Tax), Senior Asso­ciate, Cologne
Nico­las Fischer (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Johan­nes Gehring (Funds), Asso­ciate, Berlin
Dr. Nick Tambu­rello (Funds), Asso­ciate, Hamburg

About YPOG

YPOG stands for You + Part­ners of Game­ch­an­gers and forward-looking tax and legal advice. The firm advi­ses compa­nies focu­sed on future tech­no­lo­gies with the aim of using change as an oppor­tu­nity and jointly crea­ting opti­mal solu­ti­ons. The YPOG team offers compre­hen­sive exper­tise in the areas of Funds, Tax, Tran­sac­tions, Corpo­rate, Banking, Regu­la­tory + Finance, IP/IT/Data Protec­tion, Liti­ga­tion as well as Corpo­rate Crime + Compli­ance + Inves­ti­ga­ti­ons. YPOG is one of the leading addres­ses in Germany for venture capi­tal, private equity, fund struc­tu­ring and appli­ca­ti­ons of distri­bu­ted ledger tech­no­logy (DLT) in finan­cial services. —www.ypog.com