Kyle Ballarta

Kyle Ballarta is a technologist, serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and scholar working at the confluence of technology, faith, and reason. Through his lived experience as an entrepreneur and scholar, he has navigated some of the most complex design and ethical challenges sparked by the disruptive technologies of our time.

As the Founder and CEO of Falkon Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on catalyzing technologies that systemically address our biggest global challenges, Kyle was one of the earliest investors in category-leaders ICON, Eight Sleep, Palmetto, and Matternet. Prior to this, Kyle was a member of the founding team at LifeProof, a California-based consumer electronics company that grew its force from three people to over 300 employees on three continents in three years. LifeProof’s meteoric growth led to its successful acquisition by Otterbox in 2013. He is also the Co-Founder of Citadel Drone Defense, a venture-backed company with partnerships with NASA, US Special Operations, and the Department of Defense that was acquired in 2021.

Through his collaborative relationships with the Vatican, Kyle has also created and directed technology initiatives under the patronage of the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Serving in this role, he has been at the forefront of helping the Church navigate pressing technological and ethical questions surrounding the role of religion in guiding human morality with the rise of artificial intelligence and cybertechnologies. Furthermore, Kyle has served as sustainable finance coordinator for Pope Francis' Economy of Francesco, contributing to the generation of economic studies and proposals for the Holy See.

Kyle believes that how we educate the mind will change with the times, but how we cultivate the heart is and will remain timeless. This belief has been the north-star of how he approaches the opportunities related to the newest emerging technologies, while responsibly designing them to uplift the human spirit.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a British American Project Fellow, and Knight of Magistral Grace of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.