Participated · Series A · Feb 2021

Edgybees offers a Visual Intelligence Platform that geotags and augments aerial and live video streams in real time to register and track assets. Its Argus product, launched about a year ago, makes it easier for users to bring their own drones and live video to the company’s geo‑registration engine. Typical customers include first responders looking to track assets and personnel during emergencies; the company also targets defense, insurance, industrial drone users and other commercial use cases such as sports visualization. Edgybees says its mission is to ensure positive human outcomes during life‑saving missions and to expand its global footprint. The company began in Israel and is now based in San Diego. Financially, Edgybees announced a $9.5M Series A following a $5.5M seed round announced almost exactly two years earlier. Edgybees develops AR software that overlays road names, personnel locations, vehicles and other assets onto drone video feeds to improve situational awareness for emergency teams. The Santa Clara–based startup’s system has been used by responders during Northern California wildfires and Florida hurricane floods. The company originally demonstrated its technology in a racing-game application with DJI, and has since focused on commercial and industrial drone uses in fire, public safety and search-and-rescue. Edgybees plans to expand its AR platform to additional platforms and verticals including defense, smart cities, automotive and broadcast media. Leadership includes co-founder and CEO Adam Kaplan and CTO Menashe Haskin, formerly head of Amazon’s Prime Air office in Israel. Financially, the company recently closed a $5.5 million seed funding round to support that expansion.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2019

PlanetiQ is developing a commercial satellite constellation that delivers high-definition weather, climate and space weather forecasting and analytics. The company’s data and services target commercial and government customers worldwide across weather forecasting, aviation, shipping, offshore oil and gas, defense, intelligence, energy, agriculture, insurance, retail and transportation. PlanetiQ closed an $18.7M Series B, bringing total funding to $23.9M, and intends to use the funds to launch its satellite constellation. It plans to launch its first two spacecraft at the end of 2019 and to deploy a 20-spacecraft constellation over the following two years. Leadership includes founder and chairman Chris McCormick and CEO Steve Joanis. The company is based in Boulder, CO.

Led · Series B · Oct 2018

Vector builds small, dedicated launch vehicles (Vector-R) designed to carry 50–60 kg payloads, with a heavier 290 kg configuration in development. The company has completed sub-orbital proving flights and is targeting its first orbital launch in December from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Alaska. After early work funded by Defense Department and NASA grants and a $1M seed in 2016, Vector expanded with a $21M round led by Sequoia and has now raised a $70M Series B. Proceeds will fund a new rocket manufacturing facility in Tucson and expand sales and marketing — roughly doubling its Silicon Valley presence. Vector plans to transition from R&D to flight operations and profitability while scaling up production to build hundreds of small launch vehicles to meet rapid-launch demand. Vector develops the Vector-R small-launch vehicle and completed its first suborbital launch and full-scale test flight from Georgia’s Spaceport Camden. The company aims to be a commercial launch provider similar to SpaceX and targets achieving orbital launch capability by sometime next year. Its test flight carried commercial test freight from Astro Digital, the Center for Applied Space Technology and NASA’s Ames Research Center. Vector demonstrated a 3D-manufactured engine injector developed in partnership with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to help meet low-cost goals. The firm offers both dedicated, low-cost launches for small satellites and plans software-defined satellites accessible via an API so developers can build space apps without designing hardware. Vector says it aims to offer launches for as low as $3 million, a fraction of the cost of larger rockets. Vector Space Systems is a Tucson, Ariz.-based micro-satellite launch company led by CEO and co-founder Jim Cantrell. Its vehicle family includes Vector-R (Rapide) for frequent launches of payloads up to 50 kg and Vector-H (Heavy) for 100 kg-class satellites and small deep-space missions. The company planned staged vehicle rollouts: a Vector-R Block 0 launch in Q4 2017, commercial Vector-R Block 1 flights in early 2018, Vector-H Block-0 in Q2 2019 and Vector-H Block-1 commercial operations by mid‑2019. The business connects space startups and innovators with launch services to enable affordable access to space. Vector announced it raised additional angel funding to accelerate development efforts. Vector Space Systems was founded by SpaceX founding team members Jim Cantrell and John Garvey to provide high-frequency, dedicated launches — a "space taxi" model — rather than the multi-payload "space bus." The company is developing small launch vehicles designed to carry single 20–40 kg payloads with the cadence of weekly or multi-week launches, and its first stage is intended to be reusable using an aerial recovery system. Dozens of sub-orbital flights have been completed and the next milestone is demonstrating orbital deployment, with hopes for first real flights in 2017. Vector argues this model reduces wait times and payload packaging constraints for small-satellite customers. Development to date has been funded largely by the founders' cash reserves and government support from DOD and NASA, and the company announced $1M in angel seed funding to accelerate progress. Vector is seeking a Series A in the near term and reports strong investor interest.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2018

Morphisec offers an endpoint protection service that uses a moving target defense technique to continually change system security parameters and thwart cyberattacks. The approach enables a form of zero-trust defense that reduces the need for deep security expertise among employees. Morphisec automates security and works to augment existing security tools, including a partnership to make Windows 10 security features easier for clients to use. The company says it is currently protecting 7 million endpoints. Demand has grown during the pandemic as mid-sized companies accelerate cloud migration and digital transformation. Morphisec plans to use its latest funding to expand its team in the U.S. and Israel, positioning to scale support and deployment for mid-market customers. The product aims to lower both the cost of security tools and the expense of recovery after attacks by blocking threats proactively. Morphisec is a Be’er Sheva, Israel-based company led by CEO and president Ronen Yehoshua. It provides an Endpoint Threat Prevention product built on patented Moving Target Defense technology. The platform is designed to prevent APTs, zero-days, ransomware, evasive fileless attacks and web-borne exploits. The company raised $12m in a Series B funding round. Morphisec intends to use the funds to continue to grow its customer list, partner ecosystem and headcount. Investors named in the round include Orange Digital Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, GE, Deutsche Telekom, La Maison, Portage Partners, OurCrowd, Kodem Growth Partners and Evolution Equity Partners. Morphisec develops a patented suite of security defense tools that protect enterprises against targeted and zero-day attacks by turning attackers’ tactics back on themselves. Led by CEO Ronen Yehoshua, the company intends to use new funding to launch its flagship product and accelerate marketing and sales growth in North America and Europe. Morphisec was launched in 2014 in JVP Cyber Labs in Be’er Sheva and is based on patented technology originating from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The company has been operating in stealth and will come out of stealth in the fourth quarter of 2015. Financially, Morphisec closed a $7M Series A to support product launch and expansion.