New event to highlight investment opportunities in security Homeland Security Finance Forum launches next March
By SSN Staff
Updated Thu July 22, 2010
WASHINGTON—Developed by VB/Research, the inaugural Homeland Security Finance Forum will kick off at 1777 F Street NW here March 29, 2011. Spun out of something begun at GovSec last year, HSFF is looking to put roughly 25 companies on stage speaking candidly about the investment opportunities they represent for private equity and venture capital firms.
"They can't get on the stand unless they're of a certain size," said Doug Lloyd, founder and CEO of VB/Research, which develops data, news and research on investors and their investments, M&A activity, and the public capital markets for the clean technology and security marketplaces. "And they have to be prepared to talk about a transaction. We won't put anyone up there unless they're willing to openly talk about what they want to do."
Lloyd said he expects the presenting companies to roughly comprise a third physical security-focused firms, a third identity-security firms, and a third cyber-focused firms. Integrators would certainly be welcome, along with manufacturers, though Lloyd expects "very few alarm companies." He will also be skewing the attendee fee to favor private investors over banking institutions.
Last year, the GovSec event gathered 70 investors and 10 presenting companies, and "one deal has already been done," Lloyd said, "and another two are quiet hot. Things actually happened. Someone actually did some business at a conference. God forbid!"
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