It is well known that VCs move through the herd, which is why Eric Slesinger stands out. While most U.S. investors are chasing AI startups or U.S. defense technology startups, former CIA officials are looking for European defense technology deals. In fact, Slesinger, the founder of 201 Ventures, recently closed a $22 million funding focused on European defense technology startups. From developing gadgets and software for CIA agents to becoming a specialized investment in European defense technology in the United States, perhaps also a prescient path.

What would force someone to pursue this particular ambition with the CIA “the best first job ever”? As Slesinger told TechCrunch in a recent Strict Download Podcast interview, the answer comes from identifying the key shifts many people missed. "I left because I noticed that the private sector is playing more and more role in this game, and that's what I really understood before was just being a government that competes with the government," Slesinger explained. "What's more obvious is that the private sector plays such an important role here."

Stanford received a degree from mechanical engineering and Harvard Business School, and Slesinger's background prepares him to bridge the gap between defense technology and commercial venture capital. But it is his willingness to go against traditional wisdom that makes him interesting to investors, founders and tech journalists.

"I always like to go places where others tend not to want to go," Slesinger said. "That's why I really like the CIA's work. A few things people there have said before are, 'Go to other people don't do things they can't do.'"

As for the lack of American venture capital, from Slesinger's perspective, there are three things. First, “Europe has individual entrepreneurs who are equally hungry, high in belief, and as smart as anywhere else in the world.” Second, “European governments have waited too long to rethink what the arrangements for their own safety meant, and therefore are not actually critical of it.” Third, “In my opinion, Europe will soon be seen and will continue to be a place for serious grey regional competition, which means activities of state or non-state actors that belong between traditional peace and total war.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Slesinger's European business is the cultural resistance he said he encountered in defense investment. In 2022, after he moved from the United States to Madrid, he created the European Defense Investor Network, which now includes entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers. In a mid-sized post in 2023, Slesinger wrote about how his European venture capital firms are afraid to talk about defense-related investments. Unlike the United States, he told TechCrunch that investment in defense technology in Europe “is seen as unsimple and should be done, but not talk about it, and certainly not talk about it in polite companies at the dining table.” (Slesinger quickly added: “I exaggerated a little bit, but there is a truth there.”)

He said cultural hesitation led to “a lot of founders thinking about it and deciding not to build a company in the (defense) space.” Now changing. The NATO Innovation Fund is the world's first multi-person venture capital fund backed by 24 NATO allies, and after it was launched in the summer of 2022, following the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Indeed, this is an important supporter of 201 companies.

Promising defense technology startups on the mainland, including Helsing, Munich, have attracted attention, including Helsing, Munich, which is developing AI for the battlefield, which is currently valued by its investors for more than $5 billion. Another promising person in Slesinger's portfolio is Delian Alliance Industries, an Athens-based apparel that has developed a surveillance tower to detect autonomous threats. Delian has raised seed funds so far, but this is a hot ticket and is definitely actively recruited by VCS.

There have been eight investments so far, and 201 investments are focused on the technology of solving competition in the gray area, because in Slesinger's words, it "has been happening on a large scale in Europe and in the next few decades it will happen in Europe." He said: "These market dislocations are inefficient or the government play a bigger role in the market, otherwise it may be because if you want to have sovereign capabilities...these gray areas are actually a good form of Alpha."

Apart from Delian, another bet for Slesinger is Polar Mist, a Swedish startup that produces offshore drones with advanced navigation capabilities. Other areas of focus include hypertype and underground mapping.

The challenge of funding defense technology startups is a longer development timeline than traditional venture capital. Slesinger acknowledged this tension in a chat with TechCrunch: “If you have a 10-year dietary life cycle, this is something we have to do to try to speed up or bend a little bit of the real thing.”

Slesinger also believes that “European companies should lobby more at an earlier stage”.

Both raised questions about whether his gambling would pay off for investors. Meanwhile, his early vision of a more autonomous European defense ecosystem has become increasingly clear to many other investors as geopolitical tensions rise and Europe reconsider its security arrangements.

Data released earlier this year by the NATO Innovation Fund and Research Group Trading Room showed that European startups working in defense and related technologies raised 24% of their capital in 2024, up to $5.2 billion from 2023, and even surpassed AI funds. President Donald Trump returned to office in January and skeptical of the U.S. commitment to European defense, a number that could climb higher.