A year after it spun out of Boeing, the innovation incubator was walking tall at this year’s Farnborough Airshow, with two strategic partnerships, a marquee hire and a mission to drive national resilience.
At the Farnborough International Airshow, the runways belong to the primes: the spectacular flying displays, the opulent OEM chalets, the multi-million-dollar aircraft, the order announcements timed to the hour. But you can also find quieter, equally important stories in the halls, corridors and meeting rooms, including conversations about innovation, the future of defence and national resilience.
This year, we found an inspiring energy in the new Enterprise Gateway Zone, where we met a young company making bold statements about closing the gap between breakthrough technologies and the complex industries that need them, like aerospace and defence. XeleratedFifty was founded roughly a year ago by the team behind Boeing’s venture accelerator, and it has spent its first twelve months as an independent company moving at a pace that would exhaust most startups.
At Farnborough, they announced one strategic partnership with Future Aero Lab to accelerate aviation innovation, and another with CPI, the UK innovation catalyst, to help scale British deep tech onto the global stage. Then, to crown it all, XeleratedFifty announced that Ted Colbert, former President and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, was joining the team as Senior Partner, and bringing decades of leadership, technology and transformation experience to its portfolio companies and its mission.
We grabbed a few minutes with XeleratedFifty’s Founder and CEO, Nichola Quinn, and Senior Partner, Ted Colbert.
CBH: Nichola, you have been speaking passionately about national resilience. Why has it become such a focus?
Nichola Quinn: “It matters because it drives a nation’s health and prosperity. And many governments are just now catching on to this. At its core, resilience is about survival and continuity. It’s how a country keeps everything running and protects its people when things go wrong, whether a power surge, a targeted cyberattack or severe weather. In almost every conversation we have with officials, it comes back to one key point: you have to prepare long before the hit comes. The irony? When you do it right, nothing happens. No news, no panic. That’s the point. Resilience is just sovereignty in working clothes.”
CBH: Ted, you’ve argued that the very definition of defence is undergoing a profound shift. What does that look like in practice?
Ted Colbert: “Historically, defence meant one thing: kinetic force. Planes, ships, boots on the ground. But that old playbook doesn’t match today’s reality. National security today is about securing energy, key supply chains and global trade. The real front lines are now data sovereignty, cutting-edge AI and the semiconductors that power it all. You can weaken a nation today without ever firing a missile, simply by squeezing its dependencies. The battlefield has expanded into arenas that many leaders are simply not prepared for.”
CBH: With so much momentum behind you, what does the next chapter look like for XeleratedFifty?
Quinn: “There’s so much in motion right now and the opportunities to make a real impact are everywhere. In the UK, our discussions around practical funding pathways for national resilience are already well advanced. Beyond that, we’re gearing up to launch new initiatives in Monaco and Singapore. And there are some really exciting developments building behind the scenes in the UAE, though that’s about as much as I can say on that for now!”
Colbert: “I’ve found the conversations this week really energising. Leaders increasingly get it. They see that innovation plays a massive role in both resilience and defence. They understand the challenge. Now they want partners who can actually help them move. That’s why I’m here. I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work.”
Quinn: “Come and find us at the next conference. We’ll have plenty more stories to tell by then.”
We left the conversation with a refreshing energy and an exciting sense of momentum. If defence is being redefined and resilience is emerging as a sovereign capability in its own right, the global innovation incubator has planted its flag precisely where those two currents meet. On this week’s evidence, the stories it will bring to the next airshow should be worth the wait.
Visit: https://www.xeleratedfifty.com
