Dear Investors and Friends of D3,

As the NATO summit in The Hague concluded, global attention centered on a major shift: the commitment to increase defense-related investment to 5% of GDP annually—with 3.5% allocated to defense and 1.5% to critical infrastructure.

We noted the pledge of ongoing support for Ukraine:

“Allies reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours, and, to this end, will include direct contributions towards Ukraine’s defence and its defence industry when calculating Allies’ defence spending.”

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, with U.S. approval, called this language a "bridge to membership" for Ukraine—building on last year’s commitment from the Washington summit. He also confirmed that the reference to Ukraine’s “irreversible path to NATO”, introduced under President Biden, remains intact. Securing agreement from the Trump administration on this point is a significant political achievement.

What does this mean for D3 portfolio companies?

European MoDs are beginning to realize that part of their expanded budgets must go to the combat-proven innovation emerging from Ukraine—especially unmanned systems. But they’re unprepared.

These institutions are used to buying legacy hardware that lasts decades—not tools that become obsolete in months. They lack a procurement model for drones and fast-evolving technologies—no doctrine, no refresh cycle, no volume planning.

We believe MoDs will need to build dedicated teams with IT-like agility—new processes, timelines, and cultures—to manage this category of defense innovation. For our portfolio companies, this opens a historic window to shape what modern European defense will look like.

Deal Flow

Total = 735 (+35)

New Investments

• We’re excited to announce our investment in Albacore Ocean Systems — $140K on a $7M capped SAFE, marking our first move into the maritime domain ⚓️ Albacore, based in Philadelphia, is developing long-range, cost-asymmetric autonomous underwater torpedoes. Their initial platform boasts a 1,000 nautical mile range, powered by a hybrid engine built entirely from non-ITAR, commercially available components. A key innovation: the vehicle surfaces periodically to recharge and recalibrate its inertial navigation system (IMU)—enhancing endurance and accuracy. The founding team—alumni of Brown, Wharton, and UChicago—has just been accepted into the latest Y Combinator batch. Their prototype has already undergone successful water testing. We’re bringing them to Ukraine to engage with Black Sea-focused stakeholders: special forces, intelligence services, and naval command. Maritime defense tech remains underinvested and under-contested, despite its growing strategic importance in both the Black Sea and Indo-Pacific. You can view our competitive landscape analysis here.

Albacore Pitch Deck

Albacore Capabilities Overview.pdf

Albacore Investment Memo

Investment Case Albacore Ocean Systems.pdf