While working many years in the Defence market and within defence community many times came across with the fact that this business was considered as toxic or taboo for the rest of the world.

While working many years in the Defence market and within defence community many times came across with the fact that this business was considered as toxic or taboo for the rest of the world. So many times seen different pacefists demonstrations blaming us (defence players) as killers, death sellers and so many more other accusations. 

The same approach was even among the most intellectual and open minded part of society - investors. Defence projects despite their obvious profitability were put on an unspoken ban by both private and institutional investment funds. Attitude towards defence projects was even more strict than to tobacos and alcohol, we were like a mauvais ton.

However recently i came across with an interesting article on www.sifted.eu showing that the situation seems to be rapidly changing. Hopefully it is due to strengthening of public consciousness and global threats understanding not due to constantly increasing profitability and bullish trends for the next decade. Nevertheless i would like to qute some abstract of the analysis below.

“Family offices are increasingly interested in defence tech - but they’re keeping it quiet. William McManners and Nicholas Nelson, from MD One Ventures family offices are often secretive about their activities, but insiders say they're growing increasingly bullish on one area of investment: defence tech. It comes as VCs are being more vocal about their activities in the space.

“We're facing, basically, a sea change in attitudes as well as [an] openness to defence,” Nicholas Nelson, partner of UK-based defence VC MD One Ventures, tells Sifted. Estimates put the number of family offices in Europe at more than 2,000, according to a recent Deloitte report. Nelson says he’s seeing more family offices in central eastern Europe, the UK and the US show an increasing appetite for defence and dual use, both investing directly into startups as well as backing VCs, though he admits his sample size is small.

Mikolaj Firlej, who has a family office called Firlej Kastory as well as a separate security and defence-focused VC fund Expeditions, adds that he’s “certainly” seen more interest, particularly after the invasion of Ukraine. “Particularly on the eastern flank of NATO, there are many people with a real sense of urgency who would like to contribute to the cause — so there is both this financial element and mission element combined,” he adds. In western Europe, Nelson’s noticed a “greater willingness” to back defence among recent entrepreneurs who’ve set up family offices, compared to more traditional family offices..."

So obviously the analysis and the opinion of experts and VC market players shows serious perspectives for money pumping into DefTech. But it is obvious that there is not much expertise in the defence market among family offices and VCs. And this gap as per my opinion should be filled rapidly, MILZO Global Defence Ecosystem Platform