Approval from Spain's National Securities market commission
Pablo Casado, former president of the People’s Party (PP), and Ricardo Gómez-Acebo Botín, Ana Botín’s nephew, have joined forces with Joaquín Ortiz Escobar (a former Minis-try of Defence advisor) and José Antonio Bartrina (CEO at Argos Defensa) to launch a 150-million euro venture capital fund that will invest mainly in defence and artificial intelli-gence. The announcement comes following approval for the project from the Spanish Na-tional Securities Market Commission (CNMV in its Spanish initials) and in the wake of Pablo Casado’s decision to abandon his political career, as revealed in online daily El Confidencial, due to reasons of incompatibility.
The venture capital fund, which is known as Hyperion Funds, is centred on the aerospace, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence sectors as well as dual-use defence (excluding arms and lethal equipment pursuant to article 8 of the SFDR ESG). The fund’s objective is therefore to invest in emerging European technology companies, focusing especially on Spanish SMEs in order to support their growth, competitiveness and internationalisation.
The venture capital fund is managed by Singular Asset Management SGIIC, part of Singular Bank, Spain’s leading independent private bank, with 12.39 billion euros under management.
The fund will have an international advisory board made up of former NATO Secretary General and former Prime Minister of Denmark, Anders Fogh Rasmussen; the Ambassador and former US Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky; the former French Minister of Defence, Intelligence, Justice and Foreign Affairs, Michèle Alliot-Marie; SAAB’s CIO, Robert Mur-ray; a senior advisor for Rothschild, Richard Hurowitz; and inves-tors in startups and unicorns such as Martin Varsavsky and Nicole Junkermann.
The fund’s key investor will be the Nortia family office, a shareholder in Sacyr, Merlin and Arca-no, as well as fund managers Q-energy, McWin, Serena and Seaya, in which it is also the lead investor together with Iberdrola and the Andrómeda fund. Minimum investment will be one million euros, “although the fund manager may, at its discretion, accept com-mitments for smaller amounts” and will target professional investors.
The fund launch comes at a crucial time, as the geostrategic scenario has highlighted the need to boost Europe’s technology sovereignty and security capacities. This has driven a hike of more than 50% in investment in the aerospace, cybersecurity and defence sectors, with forecasts pointing to sustained and steady growth in these fields over the next decade.
In this sense, the technologies Hyperion will invest in are currently experiencing major growth around the world, both in the aerospace sector, with new projects such as the Future Combat Air System, and in cybersecurity, with artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Investment in dual-use technologies in the defence sector are therefore vital for innovation in other areas such as telecommunications, energy or mobility.
The capital invested in this field enables the development of drones, satellites, radars, browsers, batteries or robots, as occurred with the internet, WiFi, Bluetooth, laser, infrared, microwave or ultrasound, benefitting all areas of society.