The Pentagon’s path to venture capital

US Innovative Technology Fund: James Geurts, former assistant secretary of research, development and acquisition of the Navy, also acquisition executive at Special Operations Command (2021); Hugh Wyman Howard IIIretired rear admiral, former commanding officer of Naval Special Warfare Command (2022); Ryan McCarthy, former Secretary of the Army (2021); Richard Spencer, former Secretary of the Navy (2019). sally donnelly, former assistant (2018) to former Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis, serves as an advisor to Thomas Tull, founder of the Innovative Technology Fund. Defense-related investments: Gecko Robotics (automated maintenance evaluations), saronic Technologies (autonomous warships), Primer (artificial intelligence software), Capella Space (satellites), AI Shield (AI pilot), anduril (defense software/autonomous vehicles).

8VC:Brian Hendrickson, Retired Navy Rear AdmiralSouthern Command and military director, Defense Innovation Experimental Unit (2019). Defense-related investments: Anduril Industries (defense software/autonomous weapons), Epirus (against drone), Palantir (artificial intelligence software), Saronic technologies (autonomous warships).

Capital Lux: Raimundo Antonio Tomás III, retired general, US Special Operations Command (2019); James Geurts, former undersecretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisitions, and acquisitions executive at Special Operations Command (2021). Defense-related investments: Hadrian (advanced manufacturing), sailboat (autonomous maritime surveillance), anduril (defense software/autonomous vehicles), impulse space (space payload delivery), Astranis (space communications), Primer (artificial intelligence software), Relativity (space launch).

SineWave Companies: David Harris, former chief data scientist, National Security Agency (2021); Brian Hibbelan, former director, Department of Defense Remote Sensing Center (2020). Defense-related investments: clarifai (computer vision, big language AI), Shabodi (communications networks).

General catalyst: Scott Howell, retired Air Force Lieutenant General, former Joint Special Operations Command (2021). Defense-related investments: Vannevar Laboratories (defense software), anduril (defense software/autonomous drones), Applied intuition (software for autonomous vehicles).