Defense Innovation Frontiers: From DIU Breakthroughs to NatSecEDGE Conference
30 April 2025 - A Weekly Publication by New North Ventures
NatSecEDGE Conference: Securing America’s Technological Advantage
At New North Ventures, we recognize that America's technological advantage requires deliberate cultivation through strategic partnerships and principled investment. The NatSecEDGE Conference represents a crucial convergence point where visionary leaders across the defense innovation ecosystem align their efforts to address emerging threats and seize technological opportunities.
Hosted by The Cipher Brief in Austin, Texas on June 5-6, this gathering focuses on frontier domains including AI, Space, Quantum, and critical infrastructure protection. These fields represent both our nation's greatest vulnerabilities and its most promising avenues for maintaining strategic superiority.
New North Ventures' participation underscores our commitment to fostering public-private collaboration that accelerates dual-use innovations. Our team looks forward to engaging with decision-makers who share our mission of strengthening national security while creating commercial value through transformative technologies.
EXCLUSIVE OPPORTUNITY
REGISTRATION ADVANTAGE: When registering for the event, mention "New North Ventures" during sign-up to receive 50% off your ticket price. This exclusive benefit is available to our newsletter subscribers only.
LIMITED AVAILABILITY: Secure your position now at this transformative national security conference.
Join us at NatSecEDGE as we advance the critical mission of protecting democracy through principled innovation and investment. Together, we will shape the technological frontier that safeguards our nation's future.
NEW NORTH VENTURES PRESENTS: INVESTING IN THE GLOBAL COMPETITION AND INNOVATION ERA
May 13, 2025 11:00 AM EST — VIRTUAL WEBINAR
As geopolitical tensions intensify and technological competition accelerates, strategic investors must navigate complex risks and identify mission-critical opportunities. New North Ventures invites you to join our executive briefing on investing in the Global Competition and Innovation Era, featuring expert analysis from the Executive Director of the Council on Global Competition and Innovation alongside our team's presentation on Dual-Use Venture strategy. This webinar delivers actionable intelligence on strengthening both national security and investment portfolios through principled capital allocation in frontier technologies.
STRATEGIC INNOVATION: THE DIU MODEL FOR DEFENSE TRANSFORMATION
At the nexus of national security and innovation lies a compelling model for accelerating technological advantage. The Defense Innovation Unit exemplifies how purposeful bridges between commercial innovation and defense requirements create asymmetric capabilities essential for strategic competition.
DIU's pioneering approach—leveraging commercial solutions openings, streamlined contracting, and deep tech sector relationships—accelerates capability delivery to warfighters at unprecedented speed. Their work with Project Overmatch demonstrates how critical maritime domain awareness and autonomous systems integration represent frontier challenges requiring principled public-private collaboration.
New North Ventures recognizes that transformative technology rarely emerges from traditional defense acquisition channels alone. The expansion of our industrial base to include non-traditional performers is not merely advantageous—it's mission-critical for maintaining technological superiority against near-peer competitors.
As we navigate an increasingly complex threat landscape, DIU's model offers valuable lessons for the investment community: rigorous problem definition before solution specification, rapid prototype-to-production pathways, and strategic alignment of commercial innovation with defense requirements.
The future of American security depends on our ability to harness dual-use technologies that strengthen both our defensive posture and economic resilience—a mission that demands vigilance, strategic foresight, and unwavering commitment to capability advancement.
More links to explore:
Innovation in Defense is Interesting, but Agility is Everything
Estonia moves to develop new cross-government, AI-powered data management asset
HawkEye 360 Celebrates a Decade of Excellence!
Celebrating 10 Years of Transformative Impact
We're proud to highlight our portfolio company HawkEye 360 as they mark a significant milestone: a decade of delivering mission-critical signals intelligence and cutting-edge defense technology to support global security operations and decision-making processes worldwide.
For ten years, the HawkEye 360 team has been at the forefront of turning complex data into actionable intelligence, providing an essential capability that strengthens our national security posture and supports our democratic values. Their innovative approach to signals intelligence exemplifies the type of asymmetric advantage that New North Ventures champions in our investment portfolio.
We've witnessed firsthand how HawkEye 360's commitment to excellence has established them as an indispensable resource for defense and intelligence professionals. Their journey represents exactly the kind of visionary innovation that builds both economic resilience and national security capabilities.
The HawkEye 360 story is just beginning, and we look forward to supporting their continued growth and impact in the decades ahead.
Founded: 2021
Key People: CEO Marc Wietfeld
Elevator Pitch: Manufacturer of defense technology systems intended to develop autonomous unmanned systems and sensors for the European defense sector. The company's dual-use unmanned ground systems and sensors assist NATO armies and civilian first responders in tackling challenging problems, enabling armies to access necessary training and information to make decisions and take effective actions in life-or-death situations.
Funding: The company raised EUR 31 million of Series A venture funding in a deal led by HV Capital on April 28, 2025.
In our most recent episode of the Securing Our Future Podcast, general partner Jeremy Hitchcock sits down with Paul Thompson, a 20-year Army Special Forces veteran now helping bridge critical technology gaps at Morgan 6 LLC. Together, they dive into how commercial and national security sectors collaborate to drive innovation.