We founded Vannevar to solve urgent national security problems by pairing top-tier American engineers with mission operators, and built the company ground-up around our country's top national security priority--competing with China. We've focused on capital efficiency as we've grown--spending only $12M in venture capital since we founded the company in 2019 and generating $80M in revenue last year. We're now valued at $1.5B, making us the most capital efficient defense unicorn by an order of magnitude. As global threats intensify, we’re investing our own profits into bold technologies—cyber, economic warfare, sensing—to give the U.S. an edge and prevent future military conflict.
Nini Hamrick
President, Vannevar Labs
Over the past year, we've seen a significant increase in private investment across the NatSec100 cohort — with total venture funding up 32% compared to 2024. This growth is being driven by venture capital, growth equity, and crossover funds (e.g. mutual funds and hedge funds making late stage private investments) that increasingly recognize dual-use technologies as both strategically important and commercially viable.
Over the past year, we've seen a significant increase in private investment across the NatSec100 cohort — with total venture funding up 32% compared to 2024. This growth is being driven by venture capital, growth equity, and crossover funds (e.g. mutual funds and hedge funds making late stage private investments) that increasingly recognize dual-use technologies as both strategically important and commercially viable.
But the public sector is not scaling in parallel. Total U.S. Government spending across the NatSec100 cohort has grown modestly, and remains concentrated at the very top of the list — meaning a small handful of companies capture a disproportionate share of prime contract dollars, while the rest compete for crumbs. Despite rhetoric around diversifying the industrial base, the reality is that emerging players are still not seeing meaningful, programmatic contract dollars at scale.
Capital is increasingly flowing because of value creation, geopolitical forces, and technology advances. Lightspeed is most excited to invest in this category because the best companies are fundamentally changing how systems for the military are made. While the first wave of defense tech focused on autonomous systems, the next wave will be characterized by advanced offensive and defensive weaponry. We think we will see a shake up in who serves the DoD. We think there will be 4-5 emerging defense companies elevated to major prime contractor status.
Connor Love
Partner, Lightspeed Ventures
The pace and complexity of global threats demand that the United States maintain technological superiority. Investing in mission-critical capabilities, especially those that can scale across defense and national security use cases, is not just strategic; it’s essential. We are dedicated to identifying founders and emerging companies that are innovating to fill mission-critical gaps in ways that are interoperable, integrable, and scalable — bringing commercial innovation to government to help meet every challenge and win every battle.
Mina Faltas
Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Washington Harbour Partners
The $41.5B gap between private investment and federal revenue matters. The market is telling these companies to grow — and investors are backing them. But the Department of Defense has not yet built the contracting infrastructure or funding flexibility to meet the moment. Until that happens, we risk a two-speed ecosystem: one where private capital continues to surge ahead, while public dollars remain tethered to legacy processes and incumbent primes. Ultimately, this is not sustainable and we risk ecosystem momentum collapse.
Takeaway
If we want to unlock the full potential of the NatSec innovation base, public capital must start moving with the same urgency and clarity of purpose as private capital.