IQT announced on February 26 that IQT Emerge and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are teaming to help successfully transition U.S. government-funded technology innovation into national security and commercial markets. U.S.-funded R&D sometimes fails to gain market traction quickly and is forced to rely on foreign funding, a great loss of economic and national security value to the United States. This collaboration seeks to solve this problem.
IQT Emerge will help DARPA scale its Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative (EEI), a forward-looking effort launched two years ago. To date, DARPA’s 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.
With IQT Emerge, DARPA is expanding 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. IQT Emerge will support technology innovators by providing entrepreneurial expertise and expanded connections and access to U.S. investors and capital earlier in the development process. This important work delivers an effective counter to aggressive foreign investors by building stronger companies that have the ability to attract U.S. capital.
“IQT Emerge’s collaboration with DARPA is an exciting opportunity to expand DARPA’s strategic effort to promote domestic technology commercialization. We’re able to work with DARPA’s extraordinary technology innovators from the ground up and help them successfully move their technologies from the lab to the marketplace,” said Simon Davidson, EVP, IQT Emerge. “Working with IQT Emerge increases the chances that government-funded technology innovations secure U.S. capital, achieve commercial success, and benefit U.S. national security.”
IQT Emerge—a new initiative launched by IQT—connects the U.S. government innovation pipeline with entrepreneurship to support technology development for the national interest. By leveraging IQT’s unique place at the intersection of venture-backed startups and the national security community, IQT Emerge builds on IQT’s long-standing, non-profit mission to deliver emerging, cutting-edge technologies to keep the U.S. national security community at the forefront of technology innovation.
DARPA has helped lay the foundations for some of society’s most transformational technologies: the internet, miniaturized GPS, smart phones, RNA vaccines, stealth, commercial space access, and autonomous vehicles. Collaboration with IQT Emerge will give DARPA-funded researchers the hands-on guidance needed to bring their technology breakthroughs to market.
“DARPA-funded scientists and engineers are an invaluable resource for our nation, working diligently to develop technologies that will define our future. We are thrilled to partner with IQT Emerge to augment these high-performing technical teams with the critical entrepreneurial expertise needed to ensure these promising innovations make their way out of the lab and into the market,“ said Kacy Gerst, DARPA’s chief of commercial strategy.
Source: IQT
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