The Perfect Tool for Scaling U.S. Defense Investment

Excerpt

In the global techno-competition, the Department of Defense (DoD) has finally fielded a tool to incentivize America’s capital markets to invest in the kinds of emerging technologies Washington will need to maintain its advantage in this growing technology fight. In early December, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin established the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), and shortly thereafter, the OSC team unveiled their first program: the Small Business Investment Company Critical Technologies (SBICCT) Initiative—a critical technology investment fund building on a long established and historically successful program run by the Small Business Administration. The SBICCT Initiative will provide critical, early-stage investments into vital technologies that have a slower return on investment than venture capital is usually seeking. Responsibilities now lie with Congress to provide further funding and enhanced authorities and with DoD to support the office’s planned development of additional program authorities to ensure that OSC matures into a true weapon within the Pentagon’s innovation arsenal.