BOM increasingly focuses on innovation in the defense industry
“We build bridges between the business community and the Ministry of Defense,” says the Brabant Development Agency.
Published on August 19, 2025
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Strengthening national security is an urgent social challenge that also offers economic opportunities. Developing technology and changing geopolitical relations go hand in hand in this regard. The Brabant Development Agency (BOM) wants to play a decisive role at the intersection of security, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
“We build bridges between the business community and the Ministry of Defense,” writes the development agency on its platform. “We accelerate the development and application of technology that contributes to a safe society. We offer opportunities to entrepreneurs. We do this together with other regional development agencies (ROMs) and with the Ministry of Defense.”
The collaboration with the Ministry of Defense has resulted in a number of concrete initiatives in recent years. The most notable are BITS, DIANA, and SecFund.
Increasing innovative strength
The Security Fund (SecFund) was officially launched at the beginning of this year. This is a €100 million investment fund set up by the Ministry of Defense in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the ROMs.
“With the SecFund, we support start-ups, scale-ups, and innovative SMEs working on dual-use technologies: applications that can be used for both civilian and military purposes. In this way, we increase the innovative strength of the Netherlands and accelerate the development of strategically relevant technology.” BOM manages the fund and the ROMs play an active role in the selection, financing, and guidance of promising companies.
“With SecFund, we never invest alone, but always together with co-investors,” says Ernst Coolen, investment director at BOM. “In this way, we pave the way for more investments in companies with dual-use technology that would otherwise be at risk of falling between the cracks. We reduce the financing gap and strengthen the financing chain as a whole.”
Defense on the agenda
The SecFund does not stand alone. It is part of a broader commitment by BOM at the intersection of security, technology, and entrepreneurship. The goal is to work closely with the Ministry of Defense to build an innovation ecosystem that focuses on tomorrow's security and today's economy. This collaboration with the Ministry of Defense goes back many years.
“As BOM, we have put Brabant even higher on the Ministry of Defense's agenda,” says Roland Grimm, program manager at BOM. “We saw that Brabant has a unique position with the Brainport technology hotspot on the one hand and a maintenance center for F-35 aircraft on the other, in Woensdrecht.”
10,000 jobs in Brabant
In between, there are numerous Defense locations such as the air base in Gilze-Rijen and the barracks in Oirschot. More than 10,000 jobs in Brabant are directly related to the Ministry of Defense. This makes the Ministry of Defense the second-largest employer in North Brabant. Grimm: “We want to build on that. We want to strengthen the economy and make technology usable for the Ministry of Defense.”
This cooperation is obviously about security and strategic autonomy: becoming less dependent on other countries. But it is also about business opportunities. European member states are going to spend hundreds of billions more on defense. During the NATO summit in The Hague, all countries agreed to increase their defense spending to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Researchers at the Kiel Institute think tank had previously predicted that European economic growth could increase by around one percentage point thanks to significant additional defense spending. According to RaboResearch, rising defense budgets could even lead to 3.4 percent additional growth in the European economy by 2045.
A prerequisite for this growth is that Europe develops and produces more defense equipment. If production lags behind demand, additional budgets will mainly lead to price increases. Moreover, around 80 percent of defense purchases are currently made outside the EU.
We therefore need to develop and produce more ourselves. This offers not only strategic and economic opportunities, but also social opportunities. In the past, defense research has led to numerous innovations that have later found their way into everyday life. Think, for example, of the internet, GPS, and advanced prosthetics.
Training: collaborating with the Ministry of Defense
The question BOM asked itself was: can we play a role in realizing such innovations from Brabant? The answer: we think so – and so there is work to be done.
An important condition for achieving this goal is that entrepreneurs and the Ministry of Defense know where to find each other. “But collaborating with the Ministry of Defense is a bit different from what most entrepreneurs are used to,” says Mariëlle van Bijsterveld, venture developer at BOM. “For example, the Ministry of Defense wants to test everything itself in its own context. And you have to deal with complex issues such as export controls and tendering. The good news is that the Ministry of Defense attaches great importance to cooperation with innovative companies.”
This is evident from the fact that the Ministry of Defense, together with BOM and other development companies, launched an information campaign this year. The aim is to make collaborating with the Ministry of Defense more transparent and easier for companies.
Van Bijsterveld: “In three sessions, we teach entrepreneurs everything they need to know about working with the Ministry of Defense. How does the Ministry of Defense work? What is the relevance of dual use for the Ministry of Defense? What routes can you follow as an entrepreneur? What are the practical requirements, procedures, and conditions? The aim is for entrepreneurs to ultimately be able to make an informed decision about whether or not to pursue a dual-use strategy.”
BITS and Blue Magic
Under the name Blue Magic, another concrete collaboration involving BOM and the Ministry of Defense has already been established. Blue Magic is an annual innovation event focused on dual-use technologies.
Blue Magic offers a platform for innovative Dutch companies to present their dual-use technologies to an audience of defense partners, knowledge institutions, investors, and industry.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems organizes the event in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense and the BITS initiative (Brainport Innovation & Technology Security), among others.
BOM is one of the initiators of BITS. The Ministry of Defense, Brainport Development, the Province of North Brabant, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are the other partners. Innovative companies collaborate with the Ministry of Defense to make their civilian market innovations applicable to the Ministry of Defense.
Regional hubs as a driving force
BITS was the first, but is certainly no longer the only regional hub in which the Ministry of Defense collaborates with industry, knowledge institutions, and regional development companies (ROMs). These regional hubs have created a nationwide network. Through this supra-regional collaboration, the development companies are jointly increasing their influence.
This year, for example, saw the official opening of the ‘smart materials’ innovation hub at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Limburg. There, the Ministry of Defense is working together with the province and LIOF, Limburg's regional development agency, among others. This model of regional cooperation between development agencies and the Ministry of Defense ensures that Ministry of Defense innovations are developed close to regional expertise. All nine ROMs are joining forces with the Ministry of Defense. This gives the collaboration full national coverage.
BOM plays an active role in linking regional initiatives to national strategic policy. This is done, among other things, by coordinating with national agendas and programs. For example, regional drone developments can be included in the National Technology Strategy (NTS) agenda and the Defense Drone Ecosystem, which aims to accelerate the production of drones and make the Netherlands a leader in this field.
BOM also wants to ensure that the region remains involved in national initiatives by industry, knowledge institutes, government, and the Ministry of Defense. These include themes such as technology development, security, and international cooperation, including the strengthening of economic cooperation with Ukraine.
This will give the regional industry greater insight into opportunities arising from national policy. Entrepreneurs can become part of national value chains, for example, within the Defense innovation priorities (NLD areas).
Accelerating through NATO and DIANA
BOM also looks beyond our national borders. Dual-use innovations could enable Brabant companies to distinguish themselves internationally and develop technology that is in demand worldwide. Many NATO countries jointly purchase military equipment under the Smart Defense initiative. The Netherlands, for example, often collaborates with Germany. Being part of that value chain as a Dutch dual-use start-up can be valuable.
Cooperation with international industry parties from NATO areas that can contribute to strengthening the regional dual-use economy takes place through matchmaking, coordinating specific expertise, and exploring opportunities related to intellectual property.
Since early 2024, BOM, together with Brainport Development and The Gate, has been part of an important international defense network. At that time, the Brainport region was selected as one of the accelerator locations within DIANA: the Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic, NATO's innovation program.
DIANA has a similar goal to BITS, but on a global scale: to identify groundbreaking technologies that are useful for both civilian and military purposes and accelerate their development. Companies that successfully pass the selection process receive intensive guidance, mentoring, and access to an international network of test facilities.
SecFund supports Livedrop
The collaboration with the Ministry of Defense has already borne fruit. A number of concrete investments have already been made. In April, Tective from Delft was the first company to receive an investment from the SecFund. LiveDrop from Eindhoven followed later. The company, which won a Gerard & Anton Award last summer, recently raised €2.5 million in a defense-focused seed round. The SecFund is involved as a co-financier.
LiveDrop is developing a digital communication tool that is completely secure and offline. People can pass on information by scanning a kind of QR code on a screen. “It's entirely optical,” says co-founder Patrick Moreu. “One condition is that you can see each other. That's possible over a few hundred meters and in the future perhaps even with satellites.”
The potential benefits for defense are obvious. Currently, communication takes place within the radio spectrum. “And radio communication behind enemy lines can be destructive,” says Moreu. “The enemy can potentially see where you are, intercept, disrupt, and influence communications. They can turn a ‘yes’ into a ‘no.’”
Moreu thinks it's great that BOM is creating a breeding ground for collaboration with defense. “As a startup, we can now knock on doors. And they're actually opening.” The defense market is traditionally a tough one, says Moreu. “Doing business with defense is very different. But as a civilian company, we also feel a social obligation to take a stand. That's why we embrace the defense market.”
Popular program
Together with The Gate and Brainport Development, BOM implemented a specific accelerator program focused on high-tech innovations and the manufacturing industry. Development companies such as BOM have extensive experience in early-stage financing and developing startups.
Start-ups participating in the program in one of the 13 international accelerators can initially receive a grant of €100,000, with a possible extension of €300,000 later on. However, the admission requirements are strict. No fewer than 2,600 applications were received for the current program, says Van Bijsterveld. “In the end, only 74 companies were accepted, including three Dutch startups.”
This shows how much need there is for such a program and how popular it is. Van Bijsterveld: “Companies that are rejected will have another chance next year. Then the number of companies accepted will double.”
The ultimate goal of all this is clear: to offer entrepreneurs opportunities and ensure that the Ministry of Defense has faster access to innovations that guarantee our security, reduce our strategic dependencies, and offer economic opportunities to entrepreneurs in Brabant.