{"id":6491,"date":"2026-08-12T21:47:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/6491\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:47:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T21:47:22","slug":"tony-blairs-son-sets-up-defence-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/6491\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Blair\u2019s son sets up defence business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Tony Blair\u2019s son is seeking to tap into the European rearmament boom<\/a> with a new defence technology start-up.<\/p>\n

Nicky Blair, who previously worked as a teacher and a football agent, quietly incorporated Pyra Group in November and is preparing to launch the company this summer.<\/p>\n

His company is developing tools that will \u201callow users to integrate different systems into a single source\u201d, according to the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

The move comes as European countries are ramping up military spending to deter the growing threat from Russia.<\/p>\n

Along with other Nato members, Britain has pledged to increase core defence expenditure<\/a> to 3.5pc of GDP by 2035.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Pyra added it was \u201cfounded to serve the security interests of the UK and its allies\u201d.<\/p>\n

They said: \u201cIn a defining period for global defence, Britain must transform its sovereign industrial base and digital capability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are building Pyra with the scale and commitment that task demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

No further details have yet been published. The company\u2019s website tells visitors to \u201cstand by\u201d. However, Mr Blair is said to be seeking significant investment \u2013 as much as $200m (\u00a3148m).<\/p>\n

He is the second child of Sir Tony, the former prime minister, and Cherie Blair KC, the human rights barrister. The pair regularly rub shoulders with world leaders, billionaires and chief executives.<\/p>\n

Mr Blair is also the co-founder of another defence-tech startup, Skyral, which was recently part of a consortium that won a \u00a32bn contract from the Ministry of Defence to provide simulation and training services. The company raised \u00a315m from investors last year.<\/p>\n

Before venturing into defence, Mr Blair was a football agent specialising in South America. His mother was a co-director of his company, Magnitude, and previously invested in an unsuccessful video games venture he founded.<\/p>\n

Pyra is the latest venture launched by a member of the Blair family, in what some observers over the years have jokingly called the \u201cBlair rich project\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Blair\u2019s older brother, Euan Blair, is also an entrepreneur and runs apprenticeship company Multiverse, valued at $2.1bn. Kathryn Blair, the couple\u2019s only daughter, is a barrister.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, after stepping down as prime minister in 2007, Sir Tony<\/a> also ran advisory firm Tony Blair Associates until 2016.<\/p>\n

He now leads the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a non-profit think tank that seeks to influence government policy.<\/p>\n

Mr Blair\u2019s new startup has emerged after another British firm, Cambridge Aerospace, was confirmed to have raised $300m from investors at a valuation of $3.4bn.<\/p>\n

The company makes a cheap anti-drone interceptor known officially as Skyhammer, which is being rushed into service by the Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n

It has been backed by investors including DFJ Growth, a San Francisco-based firm that previously supported Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX and Tesla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Tony Blair\u2019s son is seeking to tap into the European rearmament boom with a new defence technology…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[73,3994,14,134,3993],"class_list":["post-6491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-business","tag-companies","tag-defence-industry","tag-standard","tag-tony-blair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}