Insider Brief
- Valarian, a UK-based sovereign infrastructure company for high-consequence operations and AI-driven systems, has raised $50 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), bringing total funding to $70 million; the round marks NEA’s first defence and dual-use investment in Europe.
- Founded by Max Buchan and Josh McLaughlin, Valarian provides workload-level governance across environments running critical applications and AI systems, serving both enterprise customers and defence programmes through its Valarian Enterprise and Valarian Defence tracks.
- The round has drawn support from senior UK government officials, with Kanishka Narayan, UK Minister for AI and Online Safety, citing it as part of building Britain’s sovereign AI capabilities, alongside the UK’s Sovereign AI Fund and AI Hardware Plan.
PRESS RELEASE — Valarian, the company building the sovereign infrastructure layer for high-consequence operations and AI-driven systems, has 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 Ventures, Litquidity Ventures, Sequel, as well as angel investors Gokul Rajaram and Nikesh Arora, also participated in the round.
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.
To learn more about Valarian, visit: https://www.valarian.com/
About Valarian
Valarian is a U.K.-based sovereign infrastructure company building the control layer for high-consequence operations and AI-driven systems. Its platform enables organisations to retain control over how critical applications, AI systems and operational workloads communicate, access data and operate, while enforcing governance at the infrastructure layer. Valarian serves both enterprise and defence customers through two deployment tracks: Valarian Enterprise and Valarian Defence. Founded by Max Buchan and Josh McLaughlin, the company is headquartered in London. For more information, visit www.valarian.com.
About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a global venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. Founded in 1977, NEA has more than $35 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2025, and invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm’s long track record of investing includes more than 285 portfolio company public listings and more than 510 mergers and acquisitions. For more information, please visit www.nea.com.
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