London-based Resilience Media, a media platform focused on NATO’s defence tech sector, has raised seed funding from a group of investors based in the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Germany, Israel, and Poland.
The company also announced a team of former TechCrunch journalists joining its editorial line-up.
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Founded by Leslie Hitchcock and Dr Tobias Stone, Resilience Media aims to shape the defence tech sector’s narrative and ecosystem. The company publishes newsletters, provides insights from policy makers, founders, and investors, and organises conferences to bring together key players in the field.
The defence tech sector saw $5.2B in venture capital investment in 2024.
Resilience Media’s editorial team and governance structure
Resilience Media has assembled a writing team with experience in covering technology ecosystems. The company has also implemented a governance structure to support editorial independence.
Investors have agreed not to influence editorial decisions, a commitment outlined in the company’s Articles. An Editorial Board will oversee all editorial content, including both publications and events.
Dr Tobias Stone, co-founder of Resilience Media, says, “Ukraine has shown that rapidly iterated and innovative technology will be fundamental in this new era of conflict and startups and investors have a key role to play in defence and national security. We founded Resilience Conference and Media to provide the platform for investors, founders, governments, and the military to connect, collaborate, and innovate.”
Key editorial appointments include Ingrid Lunden as Managing Editor. John Biggs, Natasha Lomas, and Jonathan Shieber join as Editors-at-Large.
The editorial team also expands geographically with Julia Gifford covering the Baltics, Anna Heim covering Central and Western Europe, and Oleksandr Ihnatenko covering Ukraine.
Matt Burns, former Managing Editor at TechCrunch, will lead the Launch at the Resilience Conference startup showcase.
The Resilience Conference 2025
Resilience Conference will return in 2025, following its first conference in London in September 2024, with participants from NATO, AUKUS, the EU, and Ukraine.
The event will bring together founders, investors, military personnel, and government representatives to discuss key defence tech topics, including autonomy, hypersonics, space and sea warfare, disinformation, manufacturing, and supply chains.
Confirmed speakers include Lorenz Meier (Auterion), Ophelia Brown (Blossom Capital), Ragnar Sass (Darkstar), Kusti Salm (Frankenburg Technologies), Robin Dechant (General Catalyst), Klaus Hommels (Lakestar, NIF, MSC), John Ridge (NIF), Cameron McCord (Nominal), Sten Tamkivi (Plural), Uwe Horstmann (Project A), Rob Harper (Rowden), and Oluseun Taiwo (Solideon).
The event will feature panels, fireside chats, breakout sessions, briefings, and a startup showcase. Some sessions will be unrecorded and off the record, aligning with the participation of military and intelligence officials.
This year, Resilience Media is introducing London Defence Tech Week, a series of coordinated events built around the Resilience Conference. The initiative highlights the company’s focus on collaboration within the defence tech sector.
The week will include the European Defence Tech Hackathon, the Resilience Conference, and the Future Forces Demo Day. Additional partner and supporter-led events will take place throughout the week, creating a platform for engagement across industry, government, and technology communities.
Leslie Hitchcock, co-founder of Resilience Media, says, “The journalistic experience we’re bringing into Resilience Media correlates directly to the importance of our mission to convene the defence tech startup ecosystem with customers, investors and partners.”
“Resilience Conference will be an agenda-setting event from our security-first team, taking the dialogue on defence tech and resilience to the next level. We can’t wait to welcome founders, investors, governments and security leaders to London for this important conversation.”
