Sponsored by TCI International Inc.
www.tcibr.com
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15 June 22. General Radar Corp. Raises $22m in Series A Funding.
General Radar Corporation, a developer of high-resolution 3D radar systems, today announced a $22m Series A funding round led by Octave Ventures, along with Disruptive Technology Advisors. Kleiner Perkins (which also participated in this Series A round) led a $3.4 m seed round in 2016.
“General Radar’s technology and systems will enhance the ways we embrace our world for the benefit of our lives, our environment, our natural resources, and our national security,” said CEO and founder Dmitry Turbiner. “We want to thank our investors, customers, and team for helping us accelerate towards our goal.”
“General Radar will redefine the radar industry,” said Octave Ventures’ Michael Kim, who is joining General Radar’s board of directors. “The innovations it is bringing to market will significantly enhance the capabilities and reduce the cost of aerospace radar, while also opening up an exciting range of new commercial applications. We believe that General Radar is a company with a very compelling future.”
“As ardent believers in the power and relevance of General Radar’s technology, Disruptive is thrilled to participate in this round. Now more than ever, we believe that General Radar’s innovations will empower the United States and its allies to address the most critical national security threats of the 21st century,” said Disruptive’s CEO Alex Davis.
About General Radar Corp.
Founded in 2016 in Belmont, California, General Radar Corp. develops high-resolution 3D phased-array radar systems, with a focus on serving customers in the aerospace and defense, wind energy, autonomy, and weather sectors. General Radar’s three in-market innovations include: achieving high-resolution without sacrificing range; designing and building fully solid-state AESA antennas; and imaging and identifying targets using arbitrary waveforms and AI/ML. General Radar will deliver advanced aerospace radar solutions at greatly reduced costs while making possible a broad range of new and expanded uses. Visit https://genrad.io
About Octave Ventures.
Octave Ventures is a global venture capital investor with a particular focus in deep tech and biotech investments. Octave invests in a variety of pre-IPO companies at various stages of their development, several of which have later gone public. Octave is committed to leveraging its experience and knowledge to partner with founders to foster growth and the development of advanced technologies. Visit https://octave-ventures.com/
About Disruptive.
Disruptive was founded in 2012 by Alex Davis and is a leading global investment firm for private technology companies and sophisticated investors around the world. Over the last decade, it has established its reputation and track record as the top privately held investment firm. Visit https://disruptive.tech/ (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
15 June 22. BlackSky Promotes Henry Dubois to Chief Financial Officer, Company Reaffirms 2022 Revenue Guidance. Recent contract wins validate BlackSky’s platform, positions Company for long-term growth.
BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) has promoted Henry Dubois to the position of Chief Financial Officer effective June 10, 2022.
Dubois joined BlackSky as chief development officer in August 2021 to lead the company’s growth and corporate development initiatives after having served as an advisor to the Company’s board since September 2018. Dubois will succeed Johan Broekhuysen who stepped down from his role as CFO on June 9. Broekhuysen will remain employed at BlackSky until August 11 to support transition efforts.
“Since joining BlackSky, Henry has been a vital member of the BlackSky executive team and instrumental in the Company’s growth. We are excited to further leverage Henry’s proven leadership in corporate finance and strategic partnerships as we execute our long-term strategy. We want to thank Johan for his contributions and we wish him the best,” said BlackSky CEO Brian E. O’Toole.
Dubois brings over 30 years of financial and executive experience in the commercial remote sensing industry. Before joining BlackSky, Dubois was the CFO at GeoEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: GEOY), a pioneer in the commercial satellite industry, where he helped scale the business from $30m to $350m of revenue. Prior to GeoEye, Dubois held several executive positions at DigitalGlobe, Inc., including president, CFO, and chief operating officer.
BlackSky also reaffirms its 2022 revenue guidance range of $58m to $62m.
“The recent bn dollar award from the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), combined with growing international business momentum support our conviction in the 2022 revenue guidance,” added O’Toole.
About BlackSky
BlackSky is a leading provider of real-time geospatial intelligence. BlackSky delivers on-demand, high frequency imagery, monitoring and analytics of the most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events on Earth.
BlackSky designs, owns and operates one of the industry’s leading low earth orbit small satellite constellations, optimized to capture imagery cost-efficiently where and when our customers need it. BlackSky’s Spectra AI software platform processes data from BlackSky’s constellation and from other third-party sensors to develop the critical insights and analytics that our customers require. BlackSky is relied upon by U.S. and international government agencies, commercial businesses, and organizations around the world. BlackSky is headquartered in Herndon, VA, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as BKSY. To learn more, visit www.blacksky.com. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
15 June 22. Houlihan Lokey Advises Salvo Technologies. Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Salvo Technologies (Salvo) has received a strategic investment from DBHCAP and Tides Capital (collectively, “DBH Tides”). The transaction closed on April 25, 2022.
Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Salvo invests in and develops manufacturing companies serving the defense, security, medical, industrial, and commercial markets. Since its inception, the company has grown into an organization with global reach and manufacturing capabilities on multiple continents. Salvo provides a range of world-class products and services, including imaging and sensing solutions with an emphasis on multispectral and polarimetric systems, high-reliability electronic and electro-optical components and assemblies, optical filters, thin and thick film coatings, and fire-control optics.
DBHCAP and Tides Capital, led by Desmond Henry and Scott Mackay, respectively, launched to build a highly focused portfolio of well-positioned, lower-middle-market companies. Specifically, DBH Tides pursues opportunities with businesses seeking a partner to manage the critical inflection point ahead of transformational growth. While they maintain independent firms, the sponsors work closely together, leveraging their 15-year relationship and highly complementary skills and networks to bring entrepreneurial passion, best-in-class strategic and operational support, and highly tailored capital solutions to attractive lower-middle-market investment opportunities.
Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor and assisted in structuring and negotiating the transaction on behalf of Salvo.
Houlihan Lokey’s Aerospace, Defense & Government (ADG) practice within the global Industrials Group is a leading M&A advisor to aerospace, defense, and government services companies. With a staff of approximately 30 investment bankers in Washington, D.C., London, and Los Angeles, Houlihan Lokey’s ADG practice is among the largest dedicated industry banking groups worldwide. In 2021, the Industrials Group was once again ranked as the No. 1 M&A advisor for all U.S. industrial transactions, according to Refinitiv.
15 June 22. KBR agrees to settle US Army LOGCAP III FCA and kickback allegations. Defence contractor KBR has agreed to pay $13.67m to the US to settle the allegations of a breach of contract, false claims, and kickbacks. Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Kellogg Brown & Root Inc, Kellogg Brown & Root LLC, and Overseas Administration Services Ltd (collectively KBR) are the four defendants involved in the lawsuit concerning the US Army Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) III contract.
As part of the settlement, the companies have agreed to pay $12m. The agreement also includes $1.67m that KBR has already paid to the US in connection with the subcontracts. In 2001, KBR secured the US Army’s LOGCAP III contract to support the Department of Defense’s (DoD) global mission.
Under the contract, KBR awarded subcontracts to two local companies. Subcontracts 11 and 39 were awarded to La Nouvelle Trading & Contracting Co, and 167 and 190 were given to First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting Co.
The lawsuit claimed that some KBR employees rigged the bidding process in exchange for kickbacks from La Nouvelle and First Kuwaiti.
KBR also allegedly inflated the prices of the subcontracts and extended the term of the contracts illegally.
It sought repayment of the inflated costs via vouchers submitted to the Army.
All these acts accounted for the violation of the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Anti-Kickback Act, along with a breach of the LOGCAP III contract.
Justice Department Civil Division head and principal deputy assistant attorney general Brian Boynton said: “Those who do business with the government have a responsibility to ensure that they are properly performing and billing under their government contracts.
“This matter reflects the department’s commitment to hold accountable contractors that knowingly overcharge the government for inflated costs and that fail to take appropriate action to prevent their employees from enriching themselves at the public’s expense.”
The latest settlement clears several pending claims of the US under the FCA and kickbacks. (Source: army-technology.com)
15 June 22. KBR (NYSE: KBR) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire U.K.-based VIMA Group, a leading provider of digital transformation solutions to defense and other public sector clients, for up to GBP £75 m, inclusive of earn-out opportunities.
VIMA Group delivers solutions across a number of large-scale, high priority digital transformation programs to support its clients in ensuring availability of effective digital and information technology as guided by the U.K.’s Digital Strategy for Defence. The company is a trusted advisor and a top five supplier to Defence Digital and Navy Digital – both organizations within the UK Ministry of Defence with a number of highly strategic, fast-growing programs.
“This acquisition builds on our growing platform of high end, technically differentiated advisory, consulting, and transformation solutions in international markets,” said Stuart Bradie, KBR President and Chief Executive Officer. “VIMA Group’s capabilities and trusted relationships in increasingly important areas accelerates our strategy to invest in the skills of the future that will deliver growth and value creation for years to come. We are delighted to welcome VIMA Group into the KBR family.”
14 June 22. IronNet Reports Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Financial Results.
IronNet, Inc. (NYSE: IRNT) (“IronNet”), a leading provider of solutions Transforming Cybersecurity Through Collective Defense℠, announced today its financial results for the fiscal first quarter ended April 30, 2022.
“In the past several months, President Biden and his cyber leaders have urged the market to embrace the concept of Collective Defense — that ‘you have to beat all of us to beat one of us.’ We firmly believe this is the future of cybersecurity,” said General (Ret.) Keith Alexander, Chairman and co-CEO of IronNet. “IronNet Collective Defense is the only anonymized threat detection collaboration solution available, giving our customers the advantage of higher efficiency in their cyber defense as they leverage the significant talent of organizations across the community.”
William Welch, co-CEO of IronNet, commented: “I am proud of our team which delivered new transactional Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of $5.5m in the quarter. Our topline results were consistent with our expectation that certain customers in our transactional business would be delayed in signing or renewing their contracts, resulting in reduced ARR and revenue from the prior quarter. We would like to reiterate that we see these opportunities as pending rather than lost. In addition to our transactional business, we believe that our strategic business pipeline of deals larger than $5 m in ARR remains strong, and our conviction is high that a number of these opportunities will materialize to support our growth for the year.”
Fiscal First Quarter 2023 Financial & Operating Highlights
- Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): $30.1 m at April 30, 2022, compared to $25.6m at the end of the same quarter last year.
- Revenue: Revenue for the first quarter was $6.7m compared to $6.4m in the same quarter last year. Cloud subscription revenue was $5.2m, or 81% of product revenue, compared to 65% in the same quarter last year.
- Gross Margin: Gross margin for the first quarter was 62.7% compared to 69.6% in the same quarter last year, with 3.1% of the gross margin in the first quarter related to sensor inventory charges to support anticipated deployments this year.
- Net loss: Net loss for the first quarter was $33.2m compared to $15.5m in the same quarter last year. Excluding stock-based compensation expense and transaction costs and fees, net loss for the first quarter would be $21.4m compared to $14.9m in the same quarter last year.
- Dollar-based average contract length: 3.2 years for the first quarter, compared to 2.8 years in the same quarter last year.
- Cash and cash equivalents: $31.4m at end of the first quarter. IronNet has not yet drawn on its equity line facility.
- Customer Count: 91 compared to 44 at the end of the same quarter last year.
Business Highlights
- Honored with the 2022 Global Infosec Award in the category of Advanced Persistent Threat Detection and Response from Cyber Defense Magazine, the industry’s leading electronic information security magazine.
- Announced as a flagship partner in the Mandiant® Cyber Alliance Program, an intelligence-led, multi-vendor approach to nation-grade intelligence, innovative integrated solutions and expert managed services.
- Detected a threat hijacking attack carrying Emotet malware against an organization located in the Asia Pacific region this May, likely part of a new campaign by the MUMMY SPIDER threat group, designed to test a new bypass for Microsoft disabling macros by default for use in future large-scale campaigns. These and other important findings by IronNet Threat Research can be found on our blog and included in our monthly Threat Intelligence Briefs.
Outlook
James Gerber, CFO of IronNet, stated: “We reaffirm our revenue and ARR guidance for the fiscal year based on the visibility we have today into the transactional side of the business as well as the continued health of our strategic pipeline of opportunities. With execution and a balanced approach to expense management, we expect to maintain the operational and strategic flexibility needed to continue to advance our market strategy.”
For the fiscal year 2023, IronNet still expects:
- Revenue of approximately $34m, representing nearly 25% growth year over year
- ARR of approximately $48m at the end of the fiscal year, representing 50% growth year over year (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
13 June 22. Echodyne Closes $135m to Expand Distribution, Production, and Development Across Defense, Security, and Autonomous Machine Markets.
Co-led by Baillie Gifford and Bill Gates, the capital raise includes multiple new and existing investors.
Echodyne, the radar platform company, today announced a $135m fundraising round, co-led by Baillie Gifford and Bill Gates with participation from multiple new and existing investors including: Northrop Grumman Corporation, NEA, Madrona Ventures, Vulcan Capital, and Vanedge Capital. Echodyne will use the investment proceeds to increase production and distribution of its industry-leading radars and expand its product lines for defense, security, and autonomous machine applications.
“We are seeing significant customer demand across multiple markets and applications where our patented technology simply creates the best performing radar available. This additional capital demonstrates strong enthusiasm and confidence from world-class investors and anchors our ambition to be the world’s leading radar solutions company,” said Eben Frankenberg, CEO of Echodyne. “The ultimate beneficiaries are our customers who use our commercial radars to create advanced solutions for intelligent security and autonomous applications that drive industries and save lives.”
In the past six months, the company has developed significant momentum with its radar solutions being selected by:
- The U.S. Army’s Security Surveillance System (SSS) program as part of the Advanced Technology Systems Company’s (ATSC) $191m dollar indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract; and
- Northrop Grumman Corporation for a new strategic agreement to integrate Echodyne radars into select Northrop Grumman advanced defense and security solutions; and
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Innovation Team for a $20m indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract.
“Echodyne’s ability to deliver high-performance radar solutions at commercial prices is a highly disruptive innovation. The company’s unique sensor technology is unlocking novel applications for customers and showing promising adoption at leading organizations, such as the U.S. Army, Northrop Grumman, NASA, and the Department of Homeland Security,” said Luke Ward, Investment Manager, Baillie Gifford. “As long term investors, we’re excited by the growth potential Echodyne has over the decade ahead and are thrilled to be supporting its next phase of market expansion and new product creation.”
The company’s proprietary metamaterials electronically scanned array technology has made it the leader in compact ESA radars globally. Echodyne has demonstrated performance leadership in all markets since introducing the first radar in 2017. Its line of commercial radars has been integrated into defense solutions, security deployments, and systems that enhance the intelligence and safety of autonomous machines. Echodyne serves customers across defense, national and critical infrastructure security, uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), and autonomous ground vehicle markets worldwide. For additional details, please visit echodyne.com. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
13 June 22. SpaceX protests Viasat-Inmarsat merger plans to U.S. FCC.
SpaceX’s satellite unit on Monday protested Viasat’s proposed acquisition of Inmarsat to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), alleging the rival satellite operator had violated commission rules and should not be granted approval to control another company’s assets.
SpaceX, which has launched some 2,600 satellites to space for its Starlink internet constellation, called on the FCC to deny satellite internet firm Viasat’s request to take over Inmarsat licenses as part of the companies’ proposed merger.
Reiterating past complaints to the commission, SpaceX argued Viasat is unfit to control Inmarsat’s FCC-approved ground terminals because Viasat is allegedly in violation of its own FCC licenses by using a radio frequency band without having met certain FCC conditions.
“Viasat has previously refuted SpaceX’s baseless claims at length. There is nothing new here,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement. “We continue to believe that the transaction will serve the public interest and remain confident that the FCC will reach that same conclusion after reviewing the complete record.”
SpaceX’s senior director for satellite policy, David Goldman, wrote in the filing: “The public interest is not served by giving a company with such blatant disregard for the Commission’s rules control over the Inmarsat satellite system.”
Viasat and SpaceX are fierce competitors in the satellite internet industry and have sparred over various licensing and regulatory issues in the past before the FCC, which allocates shares of radio spectrum to U.S. companies.
Viasat in November last year announced its intent to acquire British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat in a deal valued at $7.3 bn in cash, stock and an assumption of debt. The company said it expected to close the deal in the second half of 2022, after shareholder approval and regulatory clearances. (Source: Reuters)
10 June 22. KNDS continues to grow. The defence technology group KNDS, in which Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (Germany) and Nexter (France) merged to form the leading European company for military land systems, ammunition and related services, has presented its key figures for fiscal year 2021. The company continued its growth trajectory on a solid basis in an environment that remained strongly affected by the coronavirus pandemic and other uncertainties.
With a slight decline in incoming orders of 2.8bn euro, KNDS’ consolidated order backlog reached another record high of 10.7bn euro. Major orders came from Germany with the upgrade of the Puma infantry fighting vehicle to the latest standards, as well as from the Czech Republic and France for the Caesar artillery system.
The Group generated sales of 2.7bn euro in 2021, while its workforce grew to 8,767 employees. The outstanding revenue contributions to the 2021 financial year consisted to the 2021 financial year consisted of deliveries of the Griffon and Jaguar vehicle systems to the French Armed Forces as well as the realization of the enhanced combat effectiveness program for the Leopard 2 fleet of the German Bundeswehr. These major projects were accompanied by strong sales in the ammunition business and services. KNDS plans to generate 3.1bn euro in turnover and further expand its workforce to around 9,100 employees for the current 2022 financial year.
“As in the previous year, we have achieved or exceeded all of our economic targets,” says Frank Haun, CEO of KNDS, of the company’s performance, “and, since February 2022, it has become clear that there will be a profound change in the way security policy is thought and acted out in Europe. This not only concerns increasing investment in the
deterrent and operational capacity of the European armed forces. We also expect further consolidation of the European defence industry. KNDS was founded seven years ago to play a key role in shaping this consolidation. We are already present in
eight European countries and will further strengthen our leading position as a European supplier of military land systems.”
BATTLESPACE Comment: One thing evident at this years’ Eurosatory was the battle of the giants between KMW-Nexter and Rheinmetall as to who would be seen as the German leader in defence vehicles and technology. Rheinmetall is spending millions establishing the company in new markets. Given the reported problems in Australia with Lynx and the Lance turret in the UK, Australia and Germany, has Rheinmetall overextended itself? Are we looking at a similar scenario as BAE Systems experienced under Mike Turner?
09 June 22. Shield AI Raises $165m Series E to accelerate building of the world’s best AI pilot. Shield AI, a fast-growing defense technology company building AI pilots for aircraft, today announced it has raised $90m in equity and $75m in debt as part of a Series E fundraising round, increasing the Company’s valuation to $2.3bn. With this deal, Shield AI joins SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril as the only multi-billion-dollar defense-tech startups of the past 20 years.
“The future of defense aviation is autonomy. AI pilots are the most disruptive defense technology of our generation – and Shield AI is committed to putting the world’s best AI pilots in the hands of the United States and our allies. No company has assembled more, or recruits better AI engineering talent for, aviation autonomy and intelligent swarming than Shield AI,” said Shield AI’s co-founder and CEO, Ryan Tseng.
The round was led by Snowpoint Ventures’ Doug Philippone, who has also served as Palantir’s Global Defense Lead since 2008, with participation from multiple top-tier venture funds including Riot Ventures, Disruptive, which led Shield AI’s Series D, and Homebrew, which led Shield AI’s seed round. Previous lead investors include Point72, Andreesen Horowitz, Breyer Capital, and SVB Capital.
“Investors are flocking to quality. This round is a reflection of Shield AI’s success in creating great products, building a business with strong fundamentals, and dominant technological leadership – with an AI pilot proven to be the world’s best in numerous military evaluations. We love that they are leveraging an AI and software backbone across a variety of aircraft to deliver truly game-changing value to our warfighters. The work they are doing today is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Doug Philippone, co-founder of Snowpoint Ventures.
Shield AI’s Hivemind software is an AI pilot for military and commercial aircraft that enables intelligent teams of aircraft to perform missions ranging from room clearance, to penetrating air defense systems, and dogfighting F-16s. Hivemind employs state-of-the-art algorithms for planning, mapping, and state-estimation to enable aircraft to execute dynamic flight maneuvers and uses reinforcement learning for discovery, learning, and execution of winning tactics and strategies. On aircraft, Hivemind enables full autonomy and is designed to run fully on the edge, disconnected from the cloud, in high threat, GPS and communication-degraded environments.
Shield AI’s hardware products are its small-unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) Nova, and its medium-size vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAS, V-BAT. Hivemind is integrated onboard Nova and has been deployed in combat since 2018; it will soon be integrated onboard the V-BAT to further enhance its class-leading capabilities.
“Russia and China are jamming GPS and communications. U.S. and allied forces need swarms of resilient systems flown by AI pilots to operate in these denied environments. We call it low-cost, distributed strategic deterrence. If we had put up a bunch of AI-piloted swarms on the border of Ukraine, the Russians may have thought twice about invading. Distributed swarms are also more survivable than traditional strategic assets like an aircraft carrier (which is a high-cost, centralized strategic deterrent). Every ally is modernizing their military, and they’re looking at how AI-piloted aircraft can give them a strategic, tactical, and cost advantage,” said Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s co-founder, President, and a former Navy SEAL.
“At the end of the day, this round and Shield AI’s work will positively contribute to global security and stability, which are foundational to human progress. Advancements in technology, medicine, education, and the overall human condition are made when security and stability are strong. This requires the United States and our allies, forces for good, to have the best capabilities at their disposal — including AI pilots that protect people and deter conflict,” said Shield AI’s co-founder and CEO, Ryan Tseng.
About Shield AI
Shield AI is a venture-backed company built around a team of proven executives, warfighters with relevant national security experience, and world-class AI engineers. The company has offices in San Diego, Washington D.C., Dallas, and Abu Dhabi. Shield AI’s products and people are currently in the field actively supporting operations with the U.S. Department of Defense and allies. For more information, visit www.shield.ai. (Source: PR Newswire)
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TCI International, Inc., is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SPX Corporation. TCI provides turn-key solutions for spectrum management and monitoring, direction finding, geolocation and communications intelligence to civilian, government, military and intelligence agencies as well as antennas for communications and high-power radio broadcasting. TCI is headquartered in Fremont, California, USA. For more information, visit www.tcibr.com.
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