BOKA NEWS

Whitefish Security Summit – Whitefish, Montana (2-4 April)

BOKA partner Teresa Smetzer attended and participated in panels and discussions of this inaugural event.  The objective was to create a small, high engagement forum for candid discussions about intelligence, defense, technology, storytelling, and broader national security issues.  The aim was to bring together perspectives from government, military, intelligence, industry, investors, academia, and media to explore modern security challenges and the stories shaping public understanding of them.  There are a number of initiatives underway as a result of the engagement.​​

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JP Morgan National Security Innovation – Washington, DC (9 April)

BOKA Partner Gregory Pepus spoke at a dinner held by the JP Morgan National Security Innovation team.  The team is led by Adeleke Omitowoju and Karen Rios. Gregory was joined by Dr Alison Perez, head of M&A at Lockheed Martin.  They presented to and did a Q&A  to 8 companies working with JP Morgan on national security dual-use focused products.  They touched on topics including market area focus, federal sales, clearances, deep technology growth strategies, and alternative markets such as space, quantum, compute, and AI/Enterprise Software..

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Sea-Air-Space 2026 (21 April)

BOKA Partner Gregory Pepus attended the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space 2026, an event positioned as a major U.S. maritime defense exposition, bringing together senior leaders from the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and industry to discuss the latest capabilities across the maritime domain. This year’s focus areas centered on topics such as maritime dominance, autonomy, command-and-control, warfighting speed, modeling and simulation, and space-enabled defense technologies..

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NATO DIANA UK Accelerator Cohort Dinner – Oxford (21 April)

BOKA Partner Grant Hume represented BOKA Capital at the NATO DIANA UK Accelerator Cohort Dinner at Wadham College, University of Oxford hosted by Taylor Wessing. As a defence and national security deep tech investor BOKA Capital are active supporters of the Janus Consortia, who assist UK MOD Defence Innovation (UKDI) in the delivery of the NATO Accelerator in the UK. The event created a valuable opportunity for BOKA to connect with founders, CEOs, academics, and investors across frontier technologies to discuss major opportunities and challenges with respect to innovation exploitation and investment at the forefront of emerging technology within the Oxford innovation ecosystem.

​NATO DIANA Capital Network – London (27 April)

BOKA Partner Grant Hume also attended the inaugural NATO DIANA Capital Network event. The event brought together senior innovation leaders from across the Alliance, experts in defense spending trends, to discuss where the Alliance is heading and where private capital is critical for NATO companies accelerating the delivery of solutions for the Alliance's shared security. BOKA Capital thanks go to the entire NATO DIANA and NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) team, Lieutenant General (Ret) Dennis Gyllensporre (Chairman), NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska for her clear "Call to Action" and speakers Toby McCrindle, Nikos Loutas, Jyoti Hirani-Driver, Ryan Benitez, Ari Jonsson, Fenella McGerty, Tom Waldwyn, Christopher Cavoli (Valor Equity Partners) and Sir Stephen Lovegrove (Lazard Financial Advisory).

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Autonomous Systems and Control Research Group – Plymouth, Devon (28 April)

BOKA Managing Partner John James and Associate Rasmus Fogelstrøm attended a site visit at the University of Plymouth focusing on Marine Autonomy including the the university's Centre for Marine Autonomy, Maritime Cyber Security and Technology (CMAST). The event was hosted by DSEI Gateway and facilitated SMEs and non-traditional suppliers, investors and strategic partners in better understanding the maritime autonomy sub-sector.
 

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