NATO’s Innovation Fund has co-led a $22.5mn (€21mn) investment into iCOMAT, a UK startup building ultralight composites for the aerospace, automotive, and defence sectors. NATO’s fund has a budget of €1bn to back startups developing deep tech for defence and security applications. This marks its first public investment since it launched last year. Founded in 2019 by Greek scientist Evangelos Zympeloudis, iCOMAT has developed a fully automated manufacturing process that turns carbon fibre into lightweight composite materials. Unlike conventional methods — which produce components by stacking multiple straight fibre layers — the company’s “world-first” technology enables fibre steering. This is…