Innovation Funding Showcase Discusses Dual-Use Investing

By Kate Finkel, Staff Writer

The Innovation Funding Showcase, hosted by the Central Florida Tech Grove, took place Aug. 27 in Orlando, Florida. This event opened with a dual-use investor panel and ended with a showcase of various organizations that provide government, debt and equity capital for dual-use companies.

The investor panel consisted of Kyle Asman, managing partner of Backswing Ventures; Rob Panepinto, managing partner and chief investment officer of Govo Venture Partners and Dr. Dennis Pape, co-founder and CEO of SeedFundersOrlando. Carol Anne Dykes Logue, Tech Grove’s co-founder and director, moderated the panel.

When Logue asked the panel about trends they see happening in the dual-use investing space and what they think is driving it, Panepinto said the trend he’s noticed involved companies that are more established in the defense industry thinking there are more opportunities in the commercial space. However, depending on what stage they are currently in, “they might have a little bit of ways to go” before getting funded.

Later in the discussion, Logue asked the panel what they looked for as a good potential investment opportunity in dual-use markets.

“One of the first things we look for is revenue,” Asman said. “How we do business with risk companies is not doing deep dives into their technologies, but it’s by seeing them get customers and the customers actually paying for the product or service. As much as technologies can be interesting and innovative, we’re looking for things that make money and what people are willing to pay for right now.”

Logue explained that national security increasingly depends on rapidly learning and adopting cutting edge technologies that are often coming directly from the commercial sector. A critical part of being able to adopt these technologies from new companies is that they need capital to explore new business with the Department of Defense (DOD). To ensure these evolving technologies bring about innovative solutions, the DOD and commercial tech companies need close, collaborative relationships for those companies to have the resources, support and incentives to innovate.