Three health startups are among the companies being tapped by NATO’s tech hub for development support, underscoring how military planners are eyeing dual-use technology from the health sector.
A total of 15 companies were selected for ongoing backing from NATO’s Defence Innovation Accelerator (DIANA), the agency announced on Wednesday. Among the selections are France’s MANITTY, the US-based biotech firm Swaza and British health tech firm 52 North Health, all companies working on projects that interlink health and defence.
Those companies will continue receiving support from the alliance to develop new technologies this year as part of the DIANA programme’s second phase.
DIANA selects start-ups working on potentially disruptive dual-use technologies that could benefit NATO and its member countries. The three specific health companies chosen this year indicates NATO interest in measuring human performance and stress reactions as well as in improving medicine.
According to DIANA, for instance, MANITTY’s AI-powered tech has found a way to “continuously track vital signs and brain activity, and detect early signs of deterioration”.
52 North Health developed a way to track who has been contaminated in the event of a nuclear attack and measure blood cells to “enable remote triaging and treatment monitoring of people at risk of radiation sickness in the event of a nuclear incident” with the goal to “strengthen medical resilience capability”.
Swaza has come up with a way to help patients breathe without the aid of ventilators or oxygen tanks, according to DIANA.
Each of the companies selected from DIANA’s original cohort of 73 will receive €300,000 as well as additional support in working with investors and end-users in hopes of bringing the developmental technology to reality. The companies will also retain access to NATO-branded test centres.
The NATO accelerator’s interest in the health industry remains ongoing. DIANA also listed “human resilience and biotechnologies” among the 2026 topic areas for developing cutting-edge, dual-use technology, with the aim to “enhance and protect human health and performance, equipping humans to handle extreme physical and mental demands”, according to the DIANA website.
Earlier this summer, NATO’s innovation fund previously invested €30 million in Portal Biotech, a UK biotech company that has, according to NATO, developed a way to “accelerate drug development and diagnostics”.
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