The NATO Innovation Fund, a new $1 billion‑plus venture vehicle backed by member states, has made its first biotech investment: a $35 million stake in Portal Biotech reuters.com. The London‑based company is developing AI‑powered sensors that can detect any pathogen—even engineered ones—in minutes, using advanced protein sequencing reuters.com. NATO hopes the technology will bolster defences against bioweapons and emerging pandemics by enabling real‑time detection of chemical or biological threats. Portal’s platform could also accelerate drug discovery and personalised medicine by rapidly characterising proteins in the lab reuters.com.
The investment signals NATO’s intention to back dual‑use technologies that strengthen both military readiness and public health. Portal joins a growing roster of start‑ups using machine learning to read biological signals. With governments on alert after the COVID‑19 pandemic, expect more funding to flow toward high‑tech biosecurity solutions that straddle defence and healthcare.
