The NATO Innovation Fund has appointed Erin Hallock as Partner, a move designed to accelerate the Alliance’s adoption of deep tech and frontier technologies. The appointment aligns with the Fund’s mission to turn early breakthroughs into deployable capabilities that strengthen security, resilience, and technological sovereignty across NATO nations. It also signals a sharper focus on translating research into industrial-scale solutions that meet urgent and long-term operational needs.
Role and Rationale
Hallock will help bridge the persistent gap between proof-of-concept and real-world deployment, a step that many dual-use startups struggle to navigate. Her remit includes guiding founders through complex adoption cycles so solutions land in the public and private sectors that need them most. By reinforcing capability building at scale, she is expected to speed the path from lab to line-of-battle and enterprise operations.
Track Record and Expertise
Hallock joins from bp Ventures, where she led investments across digital technologies, deep tech, and exploratory ventures through the full lifecycle. Her portfolio experience includes steering companies through regulatory hurdles, operational integration, and market entry, which mirrors the challenges of dual-use commercialization. Earlier roles at BGF and Barclays Bank deepened her understanding of how large organizations adopt innovation while balancing immediate capability requirements with longer-term transformation.
Advancing Industrial Adoption
A core emphasis of the Fund is moving beyond pilots to sustained, industrialized deployment across supply chains and mission-critical environments. Hallock’s experience in readiness advancement and scale-up execution is expected to tighten the link between promising prototypes and fielded systems. This focus is intended to deliver technologies where they create maximum strategic impact, from defense and security to adjacent commercial sectors.
Dual-Use Strategy Across the Alliance
The Fund backs startups whose technologies can serve both military and civilian markets, creating resilience and cost efficiency. By supporting founders through design, certification, and procurement milestones, the Fund seeks to shorten timelines and de-risk adoption for governments and industry. Hallock’s operational acumen complements this strategy by aligning technical maturity with stakeholder needs across NATO members.
About the NATO Innovation Fund
The NATO Innovation Fund is the world’s first multi-sovereign venture capital vehicle dedicated to early-stage deep tech with strategic relevance. Its mandate is to strengthen operational readiness and technological sovereignty by investing in capabilities that can be adopted at speed and scale. Through these investments, the Fund aims to ensure critical technologies are available when and where they are needed most.
Geopolitical and Market Context
Rapid shifts in the geopolitical landscape are increasing demand for cost-effective, high-impact technologies that can be delivered quickly. The Fund’s approach emphasizes efficient capital deployment, repeatable scale-up, and streamlined pathways from testing to trusted use. In practice, this means pairing technical breakthroughs with adoption strategies that withstand regulatory scrutiny and meet pressing mission requirements.
Execution Priorities and Outcomes
With Hallock on board, the Fund is sharpening execution around readiness levels, integration planning, and industrialization milestones. Founders can expect more structured support for navigating procurement, interoperability, and security certifications that often slow progress. The objective is to turn breakthrough ideas into dependable systems that deliver measurable capability gains across the Alliance.
Erin Hallock’s appointment strengthens the NATO Innovation Fund’s ability to convert deep tech innovation into fielded, scalable solutions. By combining investment discipline with adoption expertise, the Fund is positioning portfolio companies to meet both urgent and enduring capability needs.