DARPA: Minds Making Moves & Money.
DARPA launches entrepreneurial initiative to bring 150 national security innovations to market..
Over the past two years, DARPA's Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative (EEI) pilot program helped 30 pre-seed research teams raise over $100 million in U.S. investment, spin out a dozen new companies, establish numerous joint development agreements with corporate partners, and commission multiple manufacturing facilities.
Today, DARPA is launching an expansion of EEI with the goal of accelerating 150 DARPA-backed technologies out of the lab and into products that promise to fundamentally change the way we live, work, and fight.
The initiative augments technical research teams with critical entrepreneurial expertise, top-tier commercialization mentors, and provides connections to investors. This important work delivers an effective counter to aggressive foreign investors by building stronger companies that have the ability to attract U.S. capital.
"DARPA-funded scientists produce technologies that have the potential to upend existing markets, establish military advantage, and create lasting societal change. Too often these innovations struggle to gain traction because research teams lack a full understanding of complex market dynamics," said Kacy Gerst, DARPA's chief of commercial strategy.
"DARPA's Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative fills these knowledge gaps by augmenting scientific research teams with critical business expertise."
DARPA-funded scientists and engineers are an invaluable resource for national competitiveness. Supporting these researchers with tailored business expertise to advance their innovations for public and military use is critical to obtain the full benefit from taxpayer funded R and D investments.
"DARPA's Entrepreneurship Initiative was instrumental for Probius in defining our platform and go-to-market plans as well as attracting additional U.S. capital to achieve significant milestones and establish production domestically.
This would not have been possible without the critical market intelligence brought by EEI's senior commercialization advisors and their broad customer and investor networks," said Emmanuel Quevy, CEO of ProbiusDx, a spinout from Stanford University that developed a quantum-enabled, AI-driven, bioanalytical platform for early detection of COVID-19 and sepsis biomarkers.
View more EEI success stories and find out how to get involved at https://eei.darpa.mil
https://www.spacewar.com/reports/DARPA_launches_entrepreneurial_initiative_to_bring_150_national_security_innovations_to_market_999.html