The UK Accelerator welcomes five innovators to 2025 cohort
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-23)

On Monday 13 January, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) and its delivery partner, the JANUS Consortium, welcomed its first NATO DIANA cohort.

Five innovative companies have embarked on a six-month programme consisting of ten modules custom designed for early stage start-ups.

The UK Accelerator hosted a launch event for over 100 attendees on Thursday 16 January to officially kick-start the cohort.

DIANA is a ground-breaking initiative that connects defence personnel, innovative start-ups, and industry across the Alliance to solve critical defence and security challenges. It provides a platform for innovators to develop, scale and test dual-use emerging technologies that address both military requirements and civilian applications.

The Janus Consortium, working in partnership with DASA, will deliver a six-month hands-on programme consisting of ten modules to the five selected defence start-ups. The programme will help them develop, scale and test technologies to solve NATO DIANA’s specific challenges and work to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of NATO’s defence industrial base. In addition, it will expand the range of innovative capabilities available for acquisition and deployment by civilian, defence and security customers in the UK and NATO-allied nations.

The 2025 Accelerator Programme will be delivered from a new, high specification office at the Imperial College London, Innovation Hub (I-HUB) in the White City Innovation District, which is co-located with the NATO DIANA Headquarters.

The Rt Hon Maria Eagle MP, Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry, said:

This fresh, collaborative approach will help dismantle the barriers that have prevented so many start-ups and SMEs from reaching their potential, and playing a full role in our collective security.

The companies of the 2025 cohort have the potential to have a transformative impact on imaging, vehicle and material safety, training as well as Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance. It is an investment in innovation-driven economic growth that we will magnify through our Defence Industrial Strategy.

The five innovators successfully selected from 2,400 applications for the DIANA programme are:

AI Verse (https://ai-verse.com/) (France)

An artificial intelligence (AI) company addressing the challenges surrounding accessibility, quality, privacy, accuracy, and labelling of images for training computer vision models.

EIFys (https://www.elfys.fi/) (Finland)

Founded by university researchers, the company aims to commercialise induced junction black silicon photodiodes.

Metahelios (https://metahelios.co.uk/) (UK)

A company building imaging technologies for industries through a nanotechnological approach.

RVmagnetics (https://www.rvmagnetics.com/) (Slovakia)

A high-technology company in the field of sensors and identification technologies based on microwaves.

Winse Power (https://winsepower.com/) (Finland)

A company developing Optical links, a solution for delivering power and data with light, with applications in the sensing and surveillance fields.

Launch Event

On Thursday 16 January, the launch event was held at Scale Space located in White City, London. The agenda included a keynote from The Rt Hon Maria Eagle MP, Minister of State for Defence Procurement and Industry, as well as speeches from Jyoti Hirani-Driver, COO, NATO DIANA, Anita Friend, Head of DASA and Tanya Suarez, founder of the Janus Consortium.

This event also hosted panel discussions with key stakeholders in the innovation space and introduced the five innovators to representatives across the defence and security industry, bringing together Allies, Government and investors.

Anita Friend, Head of DASA said:

This is an exciting milestone for the UK Accelerator. Through DASA’s partnership with NATO DIANA, we’re fast-tracking the development of dual-use technologies that address critical defence challenges. We’re thrilled to welcome these five innovative companies to the UK Accelerator programme and look forward to supporting them in developing solutions that will benefit both military and civilian applications across the Alliance.

Tanya Suarez, CEO of IOT Tribe, part of the Janus Consortium said:

In today’s rapidly evolving security landscape, innovative defence technologies have surged to the top of the government’s agenda. The UK stands as a hotbed for innovation, and through the UK Accelerator, we look forward to channelling this momentum. Our partnership with DASA will empower cutting-edge start-ups with the essential tools to become investment-ready, accelerating our future defence capabilities. Our best-in-class programme will help to enhance our technological sovereignty, bolster the security of the NATO allies, and ensure the UK remains at the forefront of defence innovation to promote a safer world.