Valarian Raises $50 Million Series a Led by NEA to Deliver the Sovereign Infrastructure Layer for High-Consequence Operations and AI Driven Systems

Valarian, the company building the sovereign infrastructure layer for high-consequence operations and AI-driven systems, announced $50 million in series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), bringing total funding raised to $70 million. The round marks NEA’s first defence and dual-use investment in Europe. Lightbank, XTX Markets, Sequel, LitVC, as well as angel investors Gokul Rajaram and Nikesh Arora, also participated in the round.

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New Funding Brings Total Amount Raised to $70 Million; Focused on Accelerating Delivery of Infrastructure Sovereignty Across Enterprise and Government Environments

Sharpening Valarian’s Dual-Use Platform

European defence spending reached €392 billion in 2025, while the concentration of critical systems and AI infrastructure among a small number of providers has extended from cloud compute into the intelligence layer itself.

For years, sovereign level control was achieved through bespoke infrastructure built by defence organisations and a small number of highly regulated institutions. As AI becomes operationally critical, that requirement is becoming universal. Valarian is building the infrastructure layer that brings that control to modern software environments.

At a technical level, Valarian provides workload-level governance across the environments where critical applications, AI systems and operational workloads run. Organisations retain control over how those systems communicate, access data and operate, while governance is enforced at the infrastructure layer and inherited automatically by every deployed capability.

“The intelligence layer of Western institutions is consolidating: quietly, contract by contract, department by department, into systems those institutions do not control,” said Max Buchan, CEO and Co-Founder of Valarian. “We built Valarian because sovereignty isn’t a feature you can add later. It’s architecture you have to build from the ground up. This round gives us the capital to take that architecture to the organisations that need it most, at the moment they need it most.”

To support the growing need for sovereign operation of critical systems, the funding will be used to accelerate Valarian’s two deployment tracks:

• Valarian Enterprise – serving organisations deploying AI and other high-consequence workloads that require workload-level governance, compartmentalisation and operational control.
• Valarian Defence – serving sovereign nations and defence programmes operating mission-critical workloads where control is non-negotiable.

Britain’s Tech Future Depends on Backing Builders at Home

NEA’s investment thesis centres on backing foundational infrastructure companies at the moment a market demands a new layer – and the firm’s decision to make Valarian its first defence and dual-use investment in Europe reflects a clear read that sovereign infrastructure is that layer.

“The critical question of the AI era isn’t which model wins — it’s who controls the environment intelligence operates inside,” said Mustafa Neemuchwala, Partner at NEA. “Valarian answers that question with genuine defence-grade architecture. This is NEA’s first defence and dual-use investment in Europe, and we made it because Valarian is building the control infrastructure layer the sovereign AI era requires.”

The $50 million round has drawn support from the highest levels of the U.K. government – recognition that Valarian’s work sits at the intersection of economic competitiveness and national security. The question is no longer whether nations will adopt AI, but whether they will retain control over the infrastructure on which that intelligence depends.

“Today, AI is the defining currency of both hard and soft power. To shape our own destiny, in accordance with our values, it is imperative that we build Britain’s sovereign AI capabilities,” said Kanishka Narayan, UK Minister for AI and Online Safety. “Pioneering British firms like Valarian understand the challenge that’s in front of us and are building the solutions that will help us deliver a safer and stronger Britain. Investments like these are helping to keep the UK at the frontier of AI development, and complement the work we’re doing through our Sovereign AI Fund, AI Hardware Plan and more to build Britain’s AI strengths.”

That signal carries equal weight in defence. As NATO allies accelerate spending on AI-enabled capabilities, the question of which infrastructure those capabilities ultimately depend on – and who controls it – has moved from procurement offices into national security councils.

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