Booz Allen Hamilton announced that its corporate venture capital arm, Booz Allen Ventures, LLC, has made a strategic investment in Second Front Systems™ (2F), a public-benefit corporation accelerating the delivery of mission-critical solutions in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and for NATO.
This investment supports and further powers 2F’s Game Warden DevSecOps Platform, a first-of-its-kind tool that configures, secures, and deploys Impact Level (IL) 1-7 accreditations for companies to deliver software to U.S. government (USG) customers, including the Department of Defense (DOD), enabling a compliant and fully managed production environment. Delivering commercial software as a service (SaaS) and authority to operate (ATO) to government with built-in accreditation, 2F’s Game Warden enables non-traditional vendors and technology providers to innovate at the speed of need to meet Day One mission demands in today’s heightened geopolitical environment.
“The U.S. government spends more than $100 billion annually on information technology to modernize federal cloud infrastructure and deliver mission solutions,” said Julie McPherson, executive vice president at Booz Allen and leader of the firm’s Digital Solutions business. “Accreditation of new software applications typically takes two years and approximately $1.5 to $2 million to obtain an authority to operate. 2F streamlines this process, accelerating the adoption of commercial off-the-shelf solutions for DOD, U.S. government, and key allies in today’s fast-paced environment.”
The investment by Booz Allen Ventures is aligned with the firm’s VoLT business strategy, focused on velocity, leadership, and technology—and supports Booz Allen’s Chief Technology Office and Digital Battlespace Platform missions. “The Game Warden Platform not only accelerates software delivery across our portfolio, but it unlocks an entire ecosystem of promising software products and capabilities that have been out of reach of operational programs and users,” said Steve Escaravage, executive vice president at Booz Allen and leader of the firm’s Digital Battlespace Platform.
“This is the future of software accreditation to speed innovation for critical missions and U.S. advantage,” added Brian MacCarthy, senior vice president at Booz Allen and managing partner for Booz Allen Ventures. “We invested in 2F not only because of anticipated mission impact, but also mission understanding: Their accreditation solution reduces barriers to entry in a safe, standardized, and scalable way for non-traditional vendors developing real, novel, and needed solutions.”
2F’s leadership team is comprised of veterans with deep military and tech experience—aligned with Booz Allen’s efforts to develop client solutions at the heart of mission understanding and technology expertise.
“As we work to change the relationship between commercial software and national security, collaborating with Booz Allen was the obvious choice,” said Tyler Sweatt, CEO at 2F. “Combining the Game Warden platform with their broad customer and program expertise and insight will allow us to rapidly scale the impact of commercial software in national security, and we couldn’t be more stoked.”
