Marcin Hejka

Bolstering Defences: Can Scale-up Funding Help Build New Defence Capabilities?

Necessity is a mother to an invention and with ongoing wars and increasing usage of drones bootstrapping defence capabilities is not unheard of. Nevertheless, the question of a scaling path remains. This panel explores this possibility, discussing different perspectives and mechanisms of scale-up funding in the defence context.

• Panel

• Paola Lo Bue OddoEuropean Innovation Council (EIC)Paola Lo Bue OddoPolicy Officer, European Innovation Council (EIC)Paola Lo Bue Oddo is a lawyer and policy officer at DG RTD’s European Innovation Council at the European Commission. As an EU official, Paola focuses on innovation, security and defense topics and is working on the expansion of the EIC to defense and dual-use. She has also worked at NATO and its Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre.Read full bio →
• Jonas CederlöfEuropean Commission — DG DEFISJonas CederlöfDeputy Head of Unit, Strategy, Interinstitutional relations, and Security, European Commission — DG DEFISJonas Cederlöf, Deputy Head of Unit, European Commission, Directorate‑General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) Jonas Cederlöf is the deputy head of the Strategy, Interinstitutional relations, and Security unit at the Directorate‑General for defence industry and space, reporting directly to the Director-General. His earlier responsibilities at the European Commission included programming and implementing defence related EU instruments, implementation of support measures to Ukraine, and development of measures countering hybrid attacks. Prior to his transition to the European Commission in 2021, he was responsible for military capability development programmes for more than two decades in the Finnish Defence Forces, covering domains ranging from naval warfare to cyberspace capabilities; and participating in international capability development in contexts such as Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO), EDA, NATO CNAD and STO work strands, and the US lead MCDC (Multinational Capability Development Campaign). Jonas Cederlöf is a former naval staff officer, with masters´ degrees also in philosophy and engineering.Read full bio →
• Marcin HejkaOTB VenturesMarcin HejkaCo-founder & Managing Partner, OTB VenturesBefore co-founding OTB Ventures, Marcin spent 18 years at Intel Capital as VP, Global Investment Committee Member, and Managing Director responsible for Europe, Israel, the Middle East, Africa, and India. He was part of the European Management Team at Intel Corporation.He has sat on the supervisory boards of several public and private companies, including two banks listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Throughout his career, he has successfully sourced, executed, and exited over 50 venture deals, including five unicorns and decacorns, through trade sales to companies such as Cisco, Google, and Microsoft, as well as IPOs on Nasdaq and NYSE.Marcin is an active Board Member for several companies in the OTB portfolio: Apheris, Plumerai and MatrixSpace, as well as the already successfully exited BabbleLabs and Minit.Read full bio →
• DKDawid KuchtaCEO & Co-founder | Microamp Solutions

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