We genuinely hope you managed to unplug over the holidays. Unfortunately, the world didn’t wait for us to get back. The events of January 3rd, the US intervention in Venezuela and the stark warnings issued to Colombia, Cuba, and Greenland (not again?), shattered any lingering illusion of calm. Geopolitical instability is no longer a distant “what if.” It is here, and the old operating manual is breaking down in real-time.
For the last thirty years, the global economy was laser-focused on Efficiency. We built a world of Just-in-Time supply chains, centralized clouds, and globalized finance, all banking on a stable international order. But it is now clearer than ever that we have to flip the script. The new mandate is Resilience.
As optimists, we aren’t here to doom-scroll. We view this unraveling not as an end, but as a necessary shakeup before a massive upgrade cycle. The companies that will dominate the next decade are those building the Sovereign Stack: the tools that give nations, businesses, and individuals the power to maintain their independence and speed, regardless of the external chaos. We’ve been talking about (and invested in) geopolitical sovereignty for a while, but we believe the opportunity goes beyond geopolitics.
Technology has finally collapsed the cost of independence. What used to require a superpower’s budget can now be run by software, robotics, and decentralized networks. We are investing in the infrastructure that powers the “Unit of One”—because in this new world, the ability to stand alone is the only way to stand strong.
We are looking for startups in this space specifically in Australia and New Zealand, a region that offers a rare “resilience premium”: a high-trust, resource-independent laboratory with rational valuations that the rest of the world has overlooked.
Here’s what we’re looking for:
Layer 1: Energy & Compute Sovereignty (The Foundation)
Securing the inputs of intelligence.
In the Age of AI, compute is the new oil, and energy is the new pipeline. Relying on a fragile national grid or a centralized cloud provider for your core intelligence is a strategic risk.
Why in 2026: AI scaling creates massive energy demand. The only way to guarantee access to the AI economy is to own the power and the silicon. We see a move towards “Energy Independence” as a competitive advantage for forward-thinking enterprises.
What we are looking for: “The Sovereign Grid.” We are looking for sovereign energy generation (Small Modular Reactors, industrial battery storage) and Decentralized Compute Networks (DePIN) that allow enterprises to pool and access GPU power without relying on a single hyperscaler.
Layer 2: Biological Sovereignty (Health)
From “Sick Care” to “Precision Performance.”
The legacy healthcare model is increasingly reactive and strained. Sovereignty means giving individuals clinical-grade tools to manage their biology preemptively, decoupling their health outcomes from institutional bottlenecks.
Why in 2026: The cost of synthetic biology and diagnostics has plummeted, making “Lab-grade” analysis possible in the home. The market is shifting from treating disease passively to optimizing health actively.
What we are looking for: “The Autonomous Clinic.” We are looking for startups building at-home diagnostics and “bio-wearables” that feed real-time data into AI agents. We are interested in tools that enable Active Health Management—continuous monitoring and AI-driven interventions that prevent issues before they require acute care.
Layer 3: Informational Sovereignty (Truth)
High-signal data in a low-trust world.
In an era of synthetic media and algorithmic curation, “Truth” is a scarce asset. Sovereignty means the ability to own your data diet and verify the authenticity of the information you consume.
Why in 2026: As synthetic content floods the web, enterprises and individuals are willing to pay a premium for Verified Reality. The ‘Dead Internet’ has made open platforms unreliable, driving demand for infrastructure that can distinguish human signal from synthetic noise.
What we are looking for: The Trusted Web. We are looking for technologies that prove “Proof of Personhood” and content provenance. We are interested in Sovereign Personalization—AI agents that curate information based on your incentives, not an advertiser’s, ensuring clarity and focus.
Layer 4: Educational Sovereignty (Skills)
Post-Industrial Learning.
The industrial education model (4-year degrees, standardized testing) is often too rigid for the fluid AI economy. Sovereignty means the ability to acquire and verify skills at the speed of innovation.
Why in 2026: The university degree is no longer the sole proxy for capability. In a world of AI copilots, the metric that matters is “Speed to Outcome.”
What we are looking for: The AI Tutor & Alternative Schooling. We are interested in platforms that provide hyper-personalized learning paths and “Skill Wallets” that allow talent to prove their worth globally, bypassing traditional accreditation bottlenecks. We are also actively looking for Alternative School Models—microschool networks and homeschooling-as-a-service platforms—that provide a scalable, high-performance alternative to the industrial education system.
Layer 5: Financial Sovereignty (Wealth)
The modernization of capital rails.
The current financial system often fails to serve the majority of the population efficiently. It is walled off, slow, and expensive. Financial sovereignty is about upgrading the banking layer to be programmable, global, and open.
Why in 2026: Technology allows us to democratize access to superior financial products. Private markets (Equity, Credit) have historically outperformed public ones but remain inaccessible to 99% of investors.
What we are looking for: “The Democratized Family Office.” We are looking for Stablecoin Infrastructure that powers instant, global settlement. We are interested in Decentralized Banking protocols and Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization platforms that unlock liquidity in private markets, allowing individuals to access institutional-grade yield and asset classes previously reserved for the ultra-wealthy.
Layer 6: Economic Sovereignty (The Physical World)
Deflationary Automation.
In a world where global supply chains face friction, relying on distant imports is an inflation risk. Sovereignty means the ability to produce goods locally, cheaply, and autonomously.
Why in 2026: Automation is the only deflationary force strong enough to counter rising global costs. Robotics has created a “Labor Floor,” making local production cost-competitive with offshore manufacturing.
What we are looking for: The API for Reality. We are looking for General-Purpose Robotics and Micro-Factory platforms that automate the physical world. We are interested in tools that allow a small team to run a massive industrial operation, scaling physical production with software margins.
Layer 7: Geopolitical Sovereignty (Security)
Actual Defense for the Modern State.
As the global security landscape shifts, mid-sized nations can no longer rely solely on treaties for protection. They need “Actual Defense”—kinetic and digital capabilities that provide credible deterrence without the budget of a superpower.
Why in 2026: The era of “Exquisite Platforms” (expensive, slow-to-build tanks and ships) is giving way to “Attritable Autonomy.” Software-defined defense allows smaller nations to punch above their weight. Security is now defined by the ability to deploy intelligent, autonomous systems at scale.
What we are looking for: Software-Defined Defense. We are looking for Kinetic Capabilities—autonomous drone swarms, counter-drone systems, and loitering munitions—that act as a force multiplier. We invest in the “Anduril Model” for the ANZ region: agile defense startups that build hardware at the speed of software, ensuring national resilience through technological superiority.
The Opportunity
Our LPs are right to look at Australia and New Zealand. But they shouldn’t just look at the land, they should look at the labs.
We believe ANZ is the perfect sandbox for the Sovereign Stack. We are a resource-rich, high-trust region with the regulatory agility to build the future.
Most importantly, we are capital efficient. ANZ founders have a track record of building global deep-tech leaders (like Canva, Rocket Lab, Xero) on a fraction of the capital required in Silicon Valley. In a world where capital costs matter, building the heavy infrastructure of the Sovereign Stack requires the discipline and efficiency that is native to this region.
Are you building a layer of the Sovereign Stack? Let’s talk.