Northcote backs defence-training platform Aquila Learning
What's the deal? Aquila LearningDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an Oxfordshire-based training technology company, has secured an early-stage minority investment from Northcote EquityDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The deal, announced in September 2026, will fund international expansion for its ALaRMS platform.
What does it do? ALaRMS manages training for more than 40,000 end users across aerospace, defence, and safety-critical sectors. It combines administration, needs analysis, design, delivery, records, and assurance in a single system for organisations running complex programmes in highly regulated environments.
Who's involved? The platform's customers include the Ministry of DefenceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and the Royal Air ForceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, along with prime contractors. Northcote Equity, an investor in technology and services companies across the UK and Ireland, backs founder-led companies through minority and majority partnerships.
What's the endgame? The investment supports broader international reach as prime contractors and defence forces modernise how they manage and assure training at scale. Existing customers will benefit from continued spending on the ALaRMS platform.
What they said: "Northcote's backing allows us to enhance our ALaRMS platform and extend our excellent level of service to more training customers globally," said Mark Radbourne, chief executive officer of Aquila Learning.
Scott Fairlie, co-founder at Northcote Equity, said the firm was drawn to how deeply the platform is embedded in customer operations: "Mark and the team have built a platform that has genuinely earned that confidence."
The signal: Defence budgets are climbing across Europe, and training assurance is a compliance-heavy corner of that spend. Northcote's bet is that specialised software managing safety-critical training can scale from UK primes to defence forces worldwide.
Read more: aquilalearning.com
Image credit: Defence Images
