This American VC is betting on European defense tech; that’s still very unusual

VCs are known to move in herds, which is why Eric Slesinger stands out a bit. While most American investors chase AI startups or U.S.-based defense tech startups, the former CIA officer is hunting for defense tech deals in Europe. In fact, Slesinger, founder of 201 Ventures, recently closed a $22 million fund focused on seed-stage European defense tech startups. His path from developing gadgets and software for CIA agents to becoming perhaps the only American VC exclusively investing in European defense tech also appears to be a prescient one. What would compel someone to leave “the best first job ever” at the CIA to pursue this specific ambition? As Slesinger told TechCrunch in a recent StrictlyVC Download podcast interview, the answer came from identifying a critical shift that many missed. “I left because I noticed that the private sector was increasingly playing a role in this competition that I previously had understood really to just be a government to government competition,” S ... Read full article.