Valarian Secures $50 Mn in Series A Round led by NEA

The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), bringing the company's total funding to $70 million.

The funding round also included investments from Lightbank, XTX Markets, Sequel, LitVC, and angel investors Gokul Rajaram and Nikesh Arora. It is also NEA's first investment in a European defence and dual-use technology company.

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“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.”

“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.”

“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."

Founded in 2020 by Max Buchan and Josh McLaughlin, Valarian is a UK-based technology company that builds secure infrastructure for AI-powered systems and high-security operations. Its platform helps organisations manage and protect their critical digital systems.

The platform gives organisations better control over how AI applications, critical software, and operational systems communicate, access data, and operate, while ensuring strong security and governance.