The National Defense Arena brought together partners of the defense industry
"We innovate best when we innovate together"
National Defense Arena’s seminar was met with a highly interested audience. The moderator of the event was Arto Räty.
The Digital Defense Ecosystem (DDE) participated in the National Defense Arena organised as part of the Riihimäki Erämessut on Friday, June 7th 2024. The diverse and eventful day culminated in a VIP guest seminar and Finland's first pitching event for defence technology start-up companies.
Members of the ecosystem participated in various events during the day. The afternoon seminar with guests brought together representatives from the armed forces, tech companies, and RDI organisations.
Jarmo Puputti, the Ecosystem lead of the Digital Defence Ecosystem, is satisfied with the day:
"The idea for the event was born last fall when a question was raised at the defence industry innovation seminar: Where can angel investors and novel defence technology companies meet? This is where the planning started, and now the work culminated in Friday's pitching event".
Like the operating model of the ecosystem, the planning and execution of the event have been done in collaboration, utilising the strengths of different actors.
"This is the perfect place for us to get to know the activities of the new, innovative technology companies, involve them in the ecosystem and move forward together into the global market. Our mission is to create new, export-driven businesses, build networks and promote opportunities for dual-use technology. At the same time, Finnish know-how and expertise will be introduced in international defence fields."
In line with the New Defense thinking model, small and agile technology innovators develop the industry alongside the traditional defence sector. The advantage of the new innovators is their ability to quickly react and respond to the changing environment and utilise joint development and testing facilities. Therefore development is cost-effective, rapid and focused on the real need. The actual operator and the technology developer are brought closer together.
“At the core of the ecosystem is crowdsourcing; by working and developing together, we learn more and the companies can support each other in the export market. For example, understanding NATO's procurement mechanisms and learning the process is a massive challenge for an individual company. The perspective of credibility is also important – as a larger player, we have the opportunity to gain more visibility and credibility," continues Puputti.
Dennis R. Lewis, Senior Advisor at the Innovation Ecosystem in the North Carolina Military Business Center
Working together was also emphasised in the afternoon seminar by Dennis R. Lewis, Senior Advisor at the Innovation Ecosystem in the North Carolina Military Business Center. The US market has similar challenges of bringing together small, deep technology innovators and rigid defence procurement mechanisms.
"You are already doing things in cooperation in Finland - we should learn from you," Lewis stated in his speech.
In addition, he emphasised that "we innovate best when we innovate together".
The evening culminated in Finland's first competition for defence technology start-up companies. The Pitch Finland DefSec event was organised in cooperation with the association of Finnish angel investors (FiBAN), and the DEFINE project of the city of Riihimäki.
"All the finalists were intriguing, high-quality companies and we are happy to receive a lot of positive feedback and publicity for the event. This event has been a joint effort of many organisations, we still do things too much in the silos instead of cooperation", sums up FiBAN's CEO Tiina Laisi-Puheloinen.
"We want to arouse angel investors' interest in the Finnish technological know-how in the defence sector, inform start-up companies about different forms of financing and naturally bring industry players together. The next pitching competition for the DefSec industry is coming in the late autumn during the Slush event. The application round in early autumn," says Laisi-Puheloinen.
The jury congratulated the winner of the Competition - DobbelGänger.
Nearly a hundred companies signed up for the competition, of which seven made it to the final presentation round. The winner was the Finnish company Dobbelgänger, which was developed in VTT's accelerator program. The company won an investment of 100,000 euros from a jury – a group of angel and private equity investors. DobbelGänger has developed light and easy-to-assemble decoys that can imitate, for example, thermal and radar properties. In addition, six other finalists: MarshallAI, ReLoc, AirHUD, PictM Technologies Oy, Spectacular AI, and Wayren convinced the jury. ReLoc's background company Gim Robotics is also a member of the DDE, and so far the only Finnish company that has been selected for NATO's DIANA accelerator.
Finnish Business Angels Network (FiBAN) is a non-profit association of private investors on a mission to inspire private investments. The network is one of the largest and most active business angel networks in the world with over 600+ approved members. www.fiban.org
Defense Innovation Network Finland (DEFINE) is an innovation ecosystem initiated by the city of Riihimäki, within the framework of which the goal is to build an internationally high-level defence and security industry network. The innovation ecosystem brings together the best experts from the military and civilian sides to create innovations that serve both military needs and society as a whole at the same time. www.definefinland.fi