Politicians, take note. Harvey Boulter thinks he’s found a way to cut health care spending while putting a little money back into national defense.
Last month Boulter’s Hong Kong based Circus Capital, which runs a $50 million technology fund, announced that it would invest £1.75 million ($2.54 million) in Alaska Food Diagnostics, a U.K. company that’s developing faster and more accurate ways of checking food for potentially deadly bugs such as salmonella and listeria. Alaska draws on the same technology the British military used to test for biological weapons during the Gulf War.
Boulter says that this deal, the first seed investment by his fund, could slash the £350 million cost of treating food-poisoning cases in the U.K. each year, while making a tidy return for his backers. That would help DERA, the government defense agency, which is taking a 50 percent stake in Alaska.
For Boulter, who quit as head of Warburg Dillon Read’s aerospace and defense M&A group in March, it makes sound business sense to invest in commercial applications of military technology. “It’s not like providing venture capital for a 19-year-old with two pages of a dot-com idea,” he says. “The technology has been developed by some of the best scientists in the world, it’s been tested on the battlefield, and it’s already patented.” He notes that microwave ovens, liquid crystal displays and nonstick saucepans all have their roots in military research. Although he has similar deals in the pipeline, Boulter won’t reveal the details. Apparently, that’s classified information.
