JOIN US AT GOODWOOD ESTATE 

01-02 October 2025

APPLY NOW TO BE A START-UP DEMONSTRATOR

Powering tech adoption to defend democracy

HOW DEMO DAY WORKS

An experimental adoption event to get the best start-up tech to UK military end users via direct and indirect pathways

STAGE 1

STAGE 2

STAGE 3

STAGE 4

OPEN APPLICATIONS

Start-ups apply to participate in Future Forces Demo Day if they have a working product (~TRL6 and above) that can solve problems faced by UK frontline commands in their pursuit of enhancing lethality across domains

SELECT START-UPS

Independent advisors from mixed backgrounds provide feedback on start-up applications and then Future Forces selects who will demo their products in person on 01 and 02 Oct at the Goodwood Estate on the basis of fit.

LIVE DEMO DAY

Start-ups then demo their products to Ministry of Defence representatives, Primes and larger companies who will bring their engineering, commercial and programme leads. Both parties then assess potential of start-ups to solve technological problems faced by end users.

PARTNERSHIPS

For start-ups that meet the right criteria, we will set the conditions for partnerships to emerge with Primes or larger companies who can then seek to include these start-ups into programmes they have or might one day have. This is how we get tech adopted.

Open Applications
Open Applications
Select Start-Ups
Select Start-Ups
Live Demo Day
Live Demo Day
Partnerships
Partnerships

Future Forces Demo Day

Goodwood estate, 01 and 02 October 2025

Join us at the famous Goodwood Estate (home of the Festival of Speed) using both Goodwood House and the Racecourse for two days of relationship building between Primes, start-ups, MoD programmes and then physical demonstrations of tech between 01 and 02 October 2025.

Attendance to the event is by invitation only.

APPLY TO BE A START-UP DEMONSTRATOR

Last Updated: JULY 2024

Welcome to Future Forces. This policy outlines how we collect, use, and protect your personal data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

  1. Data Collection and Processing

1.1 Types of Data Collected

We may collect the following personal information when you interact with Future Forces:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Work Title
  • Address
  • Telephone Number

1.2 Purpose of Data Collection

We collect this information to:

  • Communicate with you regarding Future Forces activities.
  • Provide you with relevant information about Future Forces Demo Day
  • Fulfil your requests for participation in events or activities organized by Future Forces.

1.3 Consent

By submitting your personal information through our forms, you consent to the collection, processing, and storage of your data as described in this policy.

  • Future Forces Demo Day

Demo day is an integral part of Future Forces. The data collected and processed for these sections will adhere to the same standards outlined in this policy.

  • Data Security

We take appropriate measures to safeguard your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, or alteration. Access to your data is restricted to authorized personnel only.

  • Cookie Policy

4.1 Use of Cookies

We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. Cookies are small files stored on your device that help us analyse web traffic and tailor our services to your preferences.

4.2 Cookie Pop-Up

Upon visiting our website, you will encounter a cookie pop-up requesting your consent to use cookies. By continuing to use our site, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with this policy.

  • Contact Information

For any inquiries regarding this GDPR policy or the processing of your personal data, please contact us at:

Future Forces

Changes to the Policy

We reserve the right to update this GDPR policy as needed. Any changes will be posted on our website, and the date of the last update will be revised accordingly.

Thank you for being a part of Future Forces!

Future Forces Prize Ltd

Abbey Oak, Wherwell, Andover, England, SP11 7HY

Day 1 – Building relationships at Goodwood House:

 

  1. Arrive at Goodwood House (the family home) for morning tea and coffee.
  2. Formal lunch in the ballroom with guests of honour (from the MoD and technology sector).
  3. Themed breakouts across three state rooms. Each would have the following parts:
    • Meet the Mission Partners (opportunity for Primes and Hyperscalers to set out their tech pipelines, opportunities for start-ups to collaborate and how).
    • Start-up elevator pitches (very short overviews of start-up tech and what they are looking for from new partnerships).
    • MoD programme overviews (understanding demand signals from programmes with need for start-up tech).
    • Enabling Partner advice (for R&D credit specialists, banks, law firms, VCs etc. to give advice to founders for navigating their growth journey).
  4. Move to the Racecourse for the Partner and Start-up Fair where company stands and products will be – opportunity to discover each other.
  5. Private meeting sessions – hospitality boxes will be made available to Primes to host one-on-one meetings with start-ups.
  6. Dinner and drinks reception overlooking the racecourse before retiring for the evening.

 

 

Day 2 – Demonstrations at Goodwood Racecourse:

 

  1. With full understanding of each other and relationships initiated, Mission Partners, MoD officials, Enabling Partners and VCs can see start-up tech in action.
  2. Since Goodwood has its own aerodrome, start-ups can fly their drones fully, showcasing performance.
  3. Other start-ups that are ground-based or software oriented will also have their spaces to demonstrate their value add.
  4. Demonstrations will be split thematically and be overlapping to a degree, with the ability for custom demonstrations on demand.
  5. Further opportunities for private meetings throughout the day in the hospitality boxes.

Start-ups are crucial to restoring our deterrence

“If we can double and then triple our fighting power, any British land force will be able to destroy an enemy force at least three times its size and keep on doing that…to do this, we need to grow a completely new sector in our Defence Industrial Ecosystem.”

 

General Sir Roly Walker – Chief of the General Staff

LETHALITY ACROSS DOMAINS

This is our technology theme for 2025. We encourage applications from start-ups with working products that can enhance capabilities and compliment existing systems across domains. This includes both front-end platforms (such as autonomous vehicles/drones) that can process, protect and transmit data securely, and back-end tech that can analyse and feed into missions systems capable of deploying AI/ML to augment decision making on the battlefield.

Ultimately, this is about increasing the lethality of the frontline commands.

CONVENING THE RIGHT ACTORS FOR SUCCESS

Industry decision makers (in engineering, commercial and programme functions) with the intent and capacity to build partnerships with start-ups and get their tech closer to adoption by end users

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Rowden
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Apply to be a mission partner

CONVENING THE RIGHT ACTORS FOR SUCCESS

Rapidly developing start-ups from the NATO ecosystem (including Ukraine) with working products that can provide frontline commands with a technological advantage on the battlefield

DIANA_Logo_White
DASA_Logo_White
BATTLELAB-WHITE
Apply to demo as a start-up

CONVENING THE RIGHT ACTORS FOR SUCCESS

Senior representatives from Ministry of Defence programmes and agencies that have the need for start-up tech and the commercial mechanisms to procure it within shorter time scales 

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APPLY TO ATTEND AS MoD rep

CONVENING THE RIGHT ACTORS FOR SUCCESS

Leading defence tech and dual-use investors (VCs and family offices) will monitor demand signals and potentially invest in start-ups that emerge with Prime partnerships and enable them to develop and scale

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APPLY TO TO BE AN ENABLING PARTNER

CONVENING THE RIGHT ACTORS FOR SUCCESS

Hyperscalers that can bring their scale and deep cloud-based capabilities to the defence ecosystem thereby enhancing the delivery of frontline impact to end users.

FF_WEB_AWS
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APPLY TO BE A MISSION PARTNER

CONVENING THE RIGHT ACTORS FOR SUCCESS

Leading companies who specialise in supporting start-ups on their journey from inception to scaling. They are at the event to share expertise and essential insights

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APPLY TO be an enabling partner

OUR EVENTS

HACKATHON

LONDON HACKATHON 2025 GALLERY

DEMO DAY

FUTURE FORCES DEMO DAY 2024 GALLERY

ENABLING ADOPTION

Our core aim is to facilitate adoption opportunities indirectly into programmes via partnerships with Primes as well as directly through Ministry of Defence initiatives that are designed for start-ups.

INDIRECT ADOPTION THROUGH PRIMES

SUPPLIER AGREEMENTS

DIRECT INVESTMENTS

Pilot study to test products

R&D facility access

DIRECT ADOPTION THROUGH MOD

INVITATIONS TO COMPETE IN TENDERS

ACCESSING LATEST PROBLEM SETS

DIRECT FEEDBACK FROM END USERS

apply to demo here

FUTURE FORCES PEOPLE

Executive Committee

Maj Gen Nick Cowley OBE

Chairman & Founder

Nick is the Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and previously commanded 16 Air Assault Brigade. He has conducted tours of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. He commanded a tank regiment in Germany from 2017 to 2019. Nick has been awarded a Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service, an MBE and an OBE. In 2009, Nick co-founded the social mobility charity, The Talent Tap. He studied at the University of Nottingham and completed a Masters in Strategy in the United States of America.

Richard Pass

Executive Director & Co-Founder

Richard is the Director of Strategy & Partnerships at unmanned systems scale-up STARK and an Atlantic Council Millennium Fellow. He previously spent three years as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company in the UK and Colombia. He served under Nick as a full-time tank officer in the Queen’s Royal Hussars in Germany. Before the Army, he was an economist in the Civil Service Fast Stream where he advised ministers and officials across Whitehall. He is a graduate of UCL and the University of Nottingham.

Piers Flay

Director of Operations​

Piers is a Director at Kraken Technology Group, leading commercial strategy for disruptive maritime and defence technologies, focusing on uncrewed systems and advanced platforms. He was previously an Innovation Scout and Programme Lead at jHub at the Ministry of Defence connecting military end users with world-leading technology. He spent a decade as an officer in the Household Cavalry.

Rory McGrath​

Director of Demonstrations​

Rory is currently a management consultant at PA Consulting, specialising in Business Design and Operating Models, with a particular focus on the Defence and Security sector. Prior to this, he served as an infantry officer in the Irish Guards, where he completed an operational deployment to South Sudan and his final role was as the Operations Officer. He holds a degree in Economics and Politics from Oxford Brookes University.

Our Advisory Group

Air Cdre Blythe Crawford CBE

Former Air & Space Warfare Centre

Lt Gen Richard Wardlaw OBE

Former Chief of Defence Logistics

Rob Murray

Defence, Security & Resilience Bank

Chris Magazzeni

Lakestar Capital

Nicholas Hoare

Family Office Investor

Pete Scott

Riverbed Technology

James Gayner MBE

Oracle

Lord Charlie March

NeverLift VC and Goodwood Estate

IN THE NEWS

Army chief says UK must double its lethality or be prepared for war in 2027

General Sir Roly Walker, the new chief of the British Army, has warned that the UK must be ready for potential conflict within three years due to the growing threats from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Walker emphasized the need to double the Army’s fighting power by 2027 and triple it by the end of the decade using advanced technologies like drones and artificial intelligence. He highlighted concerns such as China’s ambitions towards Taiwan, Iran’s nuclear pursuits, and Russia’s ongoing militarization. Despite not calling for conscription, Walker stressed the urgency of restoring credible military power to deter potential conflicts. He also noted the growing interdependence among these adversaries, complicating crisis management. With the British Army at its smallest in 300 years and recent defense spending commitments under review, Walker’s comments underline the need for modernization and potential future investment​.

FULL ARTICLE

Pentagon Woos Silicon Valley to Join Ranks of Arms Makers

Amid an intensifying arms race with China, concerns arise over the Pentagon’s outdated structure in contrast to China’s agile, Silicon Valley-like innovation, leading experts to sound an alarm. Stanford University’s Steve Blank emphasized China’s resemblance to Silicon Valley, asserting that the Defense Department must integrate commercial technology swiftly. The U.S. seeks private capital to revive its lagging arms production, with China surging ahead in key weaponry like drones and hypersonic missiles, investing up to $1 trillion in a public-private setup.

The Biden administration’s Pentagon budget seeks $115 million for a new Office of Strategic Capital, aiming to involve non-arms makers in boosting U.S. military production. Simultaneously, a Silicon Valley Bank liquidity crisis prompted government intervention, highlighting the connection between technology finance and defense funding. As investors pivot towards defense amid global instability, experts highlight the Pentagon’s attractiveness to startups, particularly in AI and cyber technologies, despite the challenges these innovations face in impacting conflict zones like Ukraine, where emerging technologies have yet to make battlefield impacts.

FULL ARTICLE

Load More

CONTACT US

Last Updated: JULY 2024

Welcome to Future Forces. This policy outlines how we collect, use, and protect your personal data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

  1. Data Collection and Processing

1.1 Types of Data Collected

We may collect the following personal information when you interact with Future Forces:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Work Title
  • Address
  • Telephone Number

1.2 Purpose of Data Collection

We collect this information to:

  • Communicate with you regarding Future Forces activities.
  • Provide you with relevant information about Future Forces Demo Day
  • Fulfil your requests for participation in events or activities organized by Future Forces.

1.3 Consent

By submitting your personal information through our forms, you consent to the collection, processing, and storage of your data as described in this policy.

  • Future Forces Demo Day

Demo day is an integral part of Future Forces. The data collected and processed for these sections will adhere to the same standards outlined in this policy.

  • Data Security

We take appropriate measures to safeguard your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, or alteration. Access to your data is restricted to authorized personnel only.

  • Cookie Policy

4.1 Use of Cookies

We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. Cookies are small files stored on your device that help us analyse web traffic and tailor our services to your preferences.

4.2 Cookie Pop-Up

Upon visiting our website, you will encounter a cookie pop-up requesting your consent to use cookies. By continuing to use our site, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with this policy.

  • Contact Information

For any inquiries regarding this GDPR policy or the processing of your personal data, please contact us at:

Future Forces

 

Changes to the Policy

We reserve the right to update this GDPR policy as needed. Any changes will be posted on our website, and the date of the last update will be revised accordingly.

Thank you for being a part of Future Forces!

Future Forces Prize Ltd

Abbey Oak, Wherwell, Andover, England, SP11 7HY

Last Updated: JULY 2024

Welcome to Future Forces. This policy outlines how we collect, use, and protect your personal data in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

  1. Data Collection and Processing

1.1 Types of Data Collected

We may collect the following personal information when you interact with Future Forces:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Work Title
  • Address
  • Telephone Number

1.2 Purpose of Data Collection

We collect this information to:

  • Communicate with you regarding Future Forces activities.
  • Provide you with relevant information about Future Forces Demo Day
  • Fulfil your requests for participation in events or activities organized by Future Forces.

1.3 Consent

By submitting your personal information through our forms, you consent to the collection, processing, and storage of your data as described in this policy.

  • Future Forces Demo Day

Demo day is an integral part of Future Forces. The data collected and processed for these sections will adhere to the same standards outlined in this policy.

  • Data Security

We take appropriate measures to safeguard your personal information against unauthorized access, disclosure, or alteration. Access to your data is restricted to authorized personnel only.

  • Cookie Policy

4.1 Use of Cookies

We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. Cookies are small files stored on your device that help us analyse web traffic and tailor our services to your preferences.

4.2 Cookie Pop-Up

Upon visiting our website, you will encounter a cookie pop-up requesting your consent to use cookies. By continuing to use our site, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with this policy.

  • Contact Information

For any inquiries regarding this GDPR policy or the processing of your personal data, please contact us at:

Future Forces

 

Changes to the Policy

We reserve the right to update this GDPR policy as needed. Any changes will be posted on our website, and the date of the last update will be revised accordingly.

Thank you for being a part of Future Forces!

Future Forces Prize Ltd

Abbey Oak, Wherwell, Andover, England, SP11 7HY