Wednesday, May 9, 2007

DeVenCI, DoD and the Venture Capital Community

The Defense Venture Capital Initiative is a collaboration between the Department of Defense and the venture capital community. This venture draws upon the expertise of VCs associated with Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, RockPort Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, among others.

The goal of this effort is for the DoD to gain knowledge of and access to small companies conducting innovative work relevant to ongoing DoD projects who are currently outside the DoD supply pipeline. This sort of approach is not a new idea, as it has been pioneered by the folks associated with In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture capital firm organized by the CIA.

If your company is working on topics potentially applicable to areas the DoD might be interested in and are not currently involved in any DoD processes, DeVenCI might be a good way to start.