Challenges remain for security/defense startups despite sector growth

Recent research, conducted by the independent Venture Business Research (VBR) group in London shows growing investment activities in the security space. "Total investment in private security (IT and homeland) and defense companies has exceeded over $4.7 billion in 2007 YTD ($3.5 billion in 2006 YTD) "

While this is good news for security entrepreneurs, hurdles remain. According to VBR, later stage funding rounds by VCs for security/defense startups are typically 20%+ smaller than for CleanTech and MedTech startups, although they face similar high R&D costs and long sales-cycles to government procurement offices.

The VBR study also confirmed that Europe is still lagging behind the US in terms of financing young startups in the security space: in 2007 so far, 109 security startups from the US received venture funding compared to only 70 across Europe.

Ex-President of BND to speak at GSC in Munich

We are very happy to announce our keynote speaker for the GSC conference next Tuesday in Munich:

Dr. Hansjörg Geiger was the President of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service, BND) from 1996 to 1998. The BND is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government. Dr. Geiger spent the majority of his impressive career with the legal and technical aspects of data protection in government, industry and university. His speech will focus on the protection of privacy and civil liberties in our global society that is extremely interwoven with technology.

DHS' Research Philosophy

Speaking before the audience at our GSC event in Washington on Sept 5th, Jay M. Cohen, Under Secretary for Science & Technology of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security commented about his philosophy in developing disruptive innovations in security technology:

“To arrive at one revolutionary new technology, you have to plant 1,000 flower seeds, of which you select 100 projects, of which 3 prototypes will be developed that will lead to the George Foreman Grill. I applaud the mission of the Global Security Challenge that understood this principle of fostering innovation and the innovative entrepreneurs who competed in this competition with their high-quality technologies.”

In his presentation the Under Secretary also outlined representative technology needs for Maritime Security:

• Wide-area surveillance from the coast tobeyond the horizon; port and inland waterwaysregion -detect, ID, and track


• Data fusion and automated tools for commandcenter operations


• Vessel compliance through non-lethalcompliance methods


• Enhanced capability to continuously trackcontraband on ships or containers


• Improved ballistic personal protective equipment for officer safety


• Improved WMD detection equipment for officer safety; improved screening capability for WMD for maritime security checkpoints

Munich Semi-Final on October 2nd

Join us for our European Semi-Final, held at the Technical University of Munich on October 2. Our speakers come from:

• European Commission,
• Federal Intelligence Service (BND),
• Ministry of Defence of the U.K.,
• Siemens Venture Capital,
• BWI (a private-public partnership of IBM, Siemens and German Armed Forces)
• ...and other leaders from industry, venture capital and academia.

To register for our limited tickets to the event and to view the event's full agenda, go to our webpage's section on the European Semi-Final

Selection of Top-5 European Security Startups

Our judging committee just finished its tough selection process to arrive at the five European Semi-Finalists that will go to Europe's GSC Semi-Final in Munich on Oct 2nd. Here they are:

• Aigis Blast Protection (UK) – dramatically minimizes damages of explosions through advanced materials
• Psylock (Germany) – identifies users through biometric analysis of typing behavior
• Codenomicon (Finland) – defends against online attacks and malware through intelligent network servers
• Auxetix (UK) – fortifies protection against multiple explosions through helical-auxetic nets
• Laser Detect Systems (Israel) – recognizes explosives and chemicals from 10 meters distance
  

The GSC joins the blogger community!

It was about time for the GSC to start a blog as well. So here we are, our team just returned from our regional semi-finals in Asia and the US. Here is a quick summary:

North America
Our North American Semi-Final in Washington DC, hosted together with Mississippi State University, featured interactive discussions and fascinating presentations about emerging technologies. The winner of the US-leg, NoblePeak Vision, created a new generation of visible to SWIR video surveillance camera cores and components with breakthrough night vision performance. The 2nd placed winner, Eye Marker, has developed the world's first handheld device capable of looking at markers in the human eye to determine exposure to toxins and nerve agents.

Asia
The Asian-leg of the GSC was hosted together with the National University of Singapore. The event brought together speakers from government, industry, academia and venture capital, who sparked attention-grabbing discussions with the audience. The winner of the Asian Semi-Final is XID Technology from Singapore that invented a face synthesis technology for real-time 3-D prediction in a 2-D video. The judges selected IviZ from India as the 2nd place winner, who created an on-demand penetration testing software based on artificial intelligence.