Stanislaw Kastory and Mikolaj Firlej, Co-founders and General Partners at Expeditions: Backing Europe's defence startups with €197m fund
Scaling EuropeShow Notes
Expeditions is one of Europe's only venture funds dedicated to defence and security startups. The firm recently closed its second fund at €197m.
Stanislaw Kastory and Mikolaj Firlej are Co-founders and General Partners at Expeditions. The firm backs early-stage teams across defence, cybersecurity, quantum and space technology. The new fund plans to make around 40 early-stage investments, with half its capital reserved for follow-on rounds.
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Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction 0:08 - Expeditions closes its €197m second fund 1:04 - How raising fund two differed from fund one 4:23 - Fund one's early bets in defence tech 7:10 - What's different about fund two's strategy 9:40 - Where Europe's biggest defence gaps are 12:36 - How Expeditions finds and evaluates startups 16:20 - Do European countries compete for their own defence champions? 19:52 - Financing war vs. financing European defence
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