Lockheed boosts its venture investment fund to $1B

Lockheed Martin will grow the capacity of its venture capital fund for investing in startups from $400 million to roughly $1 billion as part of a push to accelerate efforts at getting technologies from lab to field.

The Lockheed Martin Ventures organization was stood up in 2007 with initial funding of $100 million and has since invested roughly $500 million in 120 companies. Around 60 of those firms have become suppliers to Lockheed, from which they received $750 million in contracts.

Lockheed said Tuesday it will primarily use the additional VC funds over time for efforts to mature technologies for national security efforts, including the transition of tech from research-and-development into availability and operational use.

"Our venture capital investments are a critical part of our overall strategy to develop and integrate the best technologies for national security now and in the future," Lockheed’s chief financial officer Evan Scott said in a release. "Our investments help create a pipeline of cutting-edge technologies that create a resilient industrial base, drive growth, and ultimately help the United States and its allies deter the most pressing emerging threats."

Quantum computing, autonomy, artificial intelligence, directed energy, advanced materials and computer chips represent some of the core focus areas for Lockheed’s VC activity. The ventures arm has invested in 25 companies over the past 12 years.

Lockheed, Booz Allen Hamilton, RTX, Boeing, Science Applications International Corp., L3 Harris Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Maximus and Noblis are examples of WT Top 100 contractors that have involved themselves in venture capital activity to varying degrees in the past decade.

For them, the idea is to invest in and work with emerging startups whose tech creations show promise of deployment and scalability for federal government missions.