INVESTOR ATTENDEES
Scimitar Finance
Alex Nicita
We provide private credit financing for government contractors, focusing on companies with at least $10 million in annual awarded contracts, typically suited for Series A, B, and later stages.
Overview
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Leonid Capital
Jack Ray, Vice President
Leonid Capital Partners offers non-dilutive debt investments to defense, aerospace, and deep tech companies, providing strategic support and capital solutions to drive growth in mission-critical sectors.
Overview
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Rapid Ventures
Gillian Francis, co-founder and managing partner
Rapid Ventures focuses on dual-use software and hardware climate tech solutions in mobility & logistics, transportation & aviation, built environment, and clean energy & grid modernization.
The firm also focuses on pre-Seed and seed investments through their partnership with Launch NY.
Overview
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Booz Allen Hamilton
Meghan Hauser, Senior Technology Scout
Booz Allen Ventures makes direct investments in early-stage companies, acquiring minority equity stakes to drive private-sector innovation in the federal technology market. Leveraging extensive experience with the DoD and IC, our team applies rigorous due diligence through our Tech Scouting group and a vast network of Booz Allen experts.
Our focus areas include:
Artificial Intelligence
National Cybersecurity
Digital Battlespace (e.g., C3, ISR, Special Missions)
Deep Tech (e.g., 5G, quantum, AR/VR, advanced manufacturing)
Currently funding: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B (not Series C or above). We seek candidate companies for investment but are not raising external capital.
Overview
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Public Ventures
Zoey Dash McKenzie, Founder Partner
Public Ventures invests in early-stage life sciences and climate tech, focusing on scalable solutions that address climate-related health risks and promote resilient infrastructure and systems.
Funding Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Overview
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SUNY Research Foundation
Nicholas Querques, Vice President of Industry and External Affairs
The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (RF) is the largest, most comprehensive university-connected research foundation in the country.
It exists to serve the State University of New York (SUNY) by providing essential sponsored programs administration and innovation support services to SUNY faculty, students and staff who perform life-changing research in life sciences and medicine; engineering and nanotechnology; physical sciences and energy; social sciences; and computer and information sciences.
The RF manages SUNY’s research portfolio assisting SUNY faculty, students and staff through every step of the research grant process, allowing them to focus on their work and ensuring compliance with SUNY, grant sponsor and government requirements. Research at SUNY produces more than 200 new technologies every year and the RF works with business and industry, government agencies and other partners to convert SUNY's research capacity into economic growth.
Area of Funding Interest – AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, biotech and medicine, clean energy and climate tech.
Currently Funding: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Overview
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Kairos Ventures
Alex Andrianopoulos, Chief R&D Officer
Kairos Ventures invests early, often during the formative stages of a company, and work closely with the world’s leading scientists to commercialize their technologies.
Depending on the stage of development and the capital requirements of each venture, the firm makes investments between $150,000 and $20 Million.
While we are hands-on investors, we also recognize that it is the entrepreneurs’ sweat, hard work and perseverance that will drive the growth of their companies. Hence, we strive to ensure that the founding team, who make the early sacrifices in pursuit of their venture, retain the majority of the ownership in their companies.
Overview
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Draper Associates
Jacob Grogan, Investor
Draper Associates has become a leader in early-stage venture capital having funded companies including Hotmail, Skype, Baidu, Tesla, SpaceX, Twitch, Cruise, Carta, Webflow, Robinhood, and Coinbase. Draper Associates continues to innovate in providing capital to technology companies of all sizes and all geographies.
The firm is well known for being entrepreneur friendly, and supporting entrepreneurs through thick and thin, and for the long haul.
The Draper Ecosystem includes popular television show Meet the Drapers, entrepreneur education platform Draper University, global network of hostels Draper Startup House, platform for freedom and trust Draper Hero Institute, and the global Draper Venture Network.
The Draper Associates team is based in Silicon Valley and invests in companies around the world.
Area of Funding Interest: Defense, Industrials, Energy, DeepTech, B2B SaaS
Currently Funding: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A