In a strategic move to bolster biosecurity, the NATO Innovation Fund has announced its first investment in a biotechnology company, co-leading a $35 million funding round for Portal Biotech, a UK-based startup pioneering AI-powered protein sequencing for real-time threat detection.
🚨 Why It Matters:
Portal Biotech’s technology enables on-site, single-molecule biological sensing, delivering pathogen detection results within hours. This is critical not just for bio-threat identification and biowarfare countermeasures, but also for pandemic prevention, drug discovery, and precision medicine.
“Detection, surveillance, and countermeasures are absolutely essential,”
said Ana Bernardo-Gancedo, Senior Associate at NATO Innovation Fund.
Founded in response to the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, the NATO Innovation Fund plans to invest over $1 billion in frontier technologies that enhance collective defence.
🧬 What Portal Biotech Brings:
Detects known and unknown pathogens
Portable and deployable outside traditional labs
Enables continuous environmental monitoring (fields, water supply, etc.)
“It’s not just about finding what you know — it’s about discovering the unknown,”
said CEO Andy Heron, who believes the platform can revolutionize not only security, but also global health infrastructure.
💡 Backed By:
Earlybird Venture Capital
Science Creates VC
Pillar VC
8VC
We VC
British Business Bank
Bottom Line:
As biological threats grow more complex and covert, NATO is betting on biotech innovation to future-proof defence systems. Portal Biotech’s AI-driven diagnostics could become a cornerstone of military and civilian biosurveillance in the years ahead.
