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our mission:

Be the premier partner trusted to identify, evaluate, and leverage emerging commercial technologies for the U.S. national security community and America’s allies.

We achieve this mission by delivering best-in-class capabilities, strategic technology insights, and other services to our partners through our unique global investment platform—and we are honored to serve the nation and to help make the world a safer and better place.

We call our mission “Global Security Investing.” As well as encompassing defense-focused startups and harnessing existing and over-the-horizon commercial technologies to sustain military and intelligence overmatch against adversaries, Global Security Investing emphasizes the importance of international reach and collaboration in a world where innovative venture-backed startups can now be found everywhere.

25+ years building trusted partnerships

Government agencies partner with IQT because we identify and invest in companies that give them invaluable early access to cutting-edge startup technologies and deep insights into over-the-horizon innovations

We draw on our extensive experience to help our government partners work with visionary founders and companies to create and shape powerful and cost-effective new capabilities for use against mission.

Startups partner with IQT because we give them a powerful pathway to engage effectively with the government and build significant businesses

We do this by educating entrepreneurs about how to connect and collaborate with government, and by working closely with startups to adapt their technologies in ways that both enhance commercial products and achieve mission needs.

Investors partner with IQT because they value our impressive track record of finding impactful startups and our advice for working successfully with government

IQT’s presence in a company’s capital is seen as a very positive signal by other investment firms. We carefully select startups with breakthrough technologies and then help them find and develop compelling public sector market opportunities.

Interested in partnering with us to join our mission? Reach out to see how you can collaborate with us.

the IQT model

We have spent more than two decades honing an incredibly powerful and unique global strategic investment platform that has transitioned some 500 portfolio technologies to government. Three fundamental pillars power our work.

identify
startups led by visionary founders developing game-changing innovations
IQT identifies companies creating transformative technologies in multiple ways. We conduct in-depth research to build unique “Technology Architectures” that highlight innovations required to support government partners and the startups developing them. We meet with over 1,000 companies a year around the world, have a presence in 300+ boardrooms, and are constantly engaging with other investors and industry contacts. And our in-house applied research and prototyping group experiments with new technologies to keep us at the leading edge of tech-driven change.
evaluate
how these innovations can best serve current and future mission needs
As part of our rigorous evaluation process, we conduct thorough due diligence on young companies and their technologies. Thanks to our trusted relationships with our government partners, we have unparalleled insights into their specific needs and how startups’ products can address them. And our 25+ years of experience enable us to assess what work will be required to modify technologies for maximum mission impact while also enhancing their commercial success.
leverage
our deep in-house expertise to adapt and transfer emerging commercial technologies successfully, and to raise awareness of how profound changes in emerging tech will impact national security and economic competitiveness
IQT makes investments to monitor the evolution of frontier technologies and launch work programs that accelerate their adoption for mission use. Almost half our programs involve multiple government partners, boosting both capabilities and cost-efficiency. We hold many events at which our portfolio companies and government partners meet and collaborate. And we offer other unique benefits to startups in which we invest, including helping them navigate complex public-sector procurement processes and to work highly effectively with government entities.

Our Government Platform Accelerator program provides content and coaching to startups to speed their entry into the public-sector market, including white papers, webinars, and training sessions. We also share our deep insights into the evolution of critical technologies and their implications for national security with partners and policymakers via Global Competitive Analyses, Innovation Strategy papers, and other publications.