Fortem receives new Lockheed backing, Reliable Robotics completes Series B raise
Gettyimages.com / Anton Petrus
By
Ross Wilkers
Autonomous flight and supporting technologies to help avoid accidents is a common thread in both of these investment rounds.
Fortem Technologies
The maker of sensors and software for securing airspace from unauthorized drones has received a $25 million investment from Lockheed Martin to represent the first tranche of a Series B capital raise.
Fortem Technologies opened for business in 2016 to design radars that help unmanned aerial vehicles detect and avoid other aircraft and airborne objects beyond visual lines of sight.
Fortem builds artificial intelligence functions into its sensors, command-and-control software and interceptors to defend government and commercial infrastructure from hostile or unauthorized UAVs.
“Low-cost, increasingly autonomous drone threats are scaling faster than traditional defenses were designed to handle,” Fortem CEO Jon Gruen said in a release Wednesday. “Our work with Lockheed Martin reflects a shared recognition that counter-UAS capabilities need to be autonomous, integrated and deployable at scale.”
As part of this investment and partnership, Fortem will push to accelerate production of its products at scale and deploy them within Lockheed’s counter-UAS ecosystem called Sanctum. The idea is to further create an interoperable environment that allows for more seamless integration of technologies as they evolve.
For Lockheed, this new investment in Fortem follows the defense giant’s participation in a $17.8 million funding round in 2023 through its venture capital arm.
Fortem’s network of investors also includes AE Industrial Partners, DCVC, Toshiba, AIM13 and Signia Venture Partners.
Reliable Robotics
Also focused on autonomous flight, this maker UAVs for transporting cargo has collected $160 million in capital to aid its pursuit of a key Federal Aviation Administration certification for its aircraft.
SpaceX veterans Robert Ross (CEO) and Juerg Frefel (chief technology officer) co-founded Reliable Robotics in 2017 to develop its flagship Reliable Autonomy System to avoid accidents and integrate with existing aviation infrastructure, including other certified aircraft.
“Aviation is vital to our economy and national security, but to meet demand it needs to be able to scale safely,” Rose said in a release Tuesday. “Automation eases constraints, enabling us to realize greater levels of throughput at even higher levels of safety.”
With this new capital infusion, Reliable will push to expand its production facility footprint and pursue more opportunities for demonstration flights for military and commercial entities.
Nimble Ventures led the new financing round with continued support from Eclipse, Lightspeed, Coatue and Pathbreaker Ventures. Nimble’s partner and founder John Burbank will join Reliable’s board of directors.
Notable GovCon names entering as new investors include AE Ventures and RTX Ventures, respectively arms of AE Industrial Partners and RTX Corp. Other new investors include Island Green Capital, Socium Ventures, Presidio Ventures, UP.Partners, KAS Venture Partners, What IF Ventures, Calm Ventures, Gaingels and Mana Ventures.