National Security Entrepreneurship, Launching OSC and OSINT Strategies, Fundings: Applied Intuition, Firestorm, Lumen Orbit
13 March 2024 - A Weekly Publication by New North Ventures
In our latest podcast episode, General Partner Jeremy Hitchcock had the privilege of sitting down with Landon Winkelvoss, co-founder of Nisos, a groundbreaking cybersecurity and threat intelligence company. Landon's journey from a Technical Targeting Officer in the U.S. Intelligence Community to the VP of Legal and Intelligence Advisory at Nisos provides a unique perspective on the intersection of national security, entrepreneurship, and cutting-edge technology.
In the episode, Landon shares the captivating story of Nisos's inception and growth, shedding light on the challenges and triumphs of transitioning from government service to founding a company. With a focus on delivering artificial intelligence-driven insights for cyberattacks, fraud, IP theft, and more, Nisos has become a pivotal player in providing blue-chip threat intelligence services to both corporate entities and the national security sector.
Tune in to hear about Landon's vision for Nisos, the company's evolution, and the crucial role of AI in shaping the future of threat intelligence. His journey from the U.S. Intelligence Community's shadows to the cybersecurity industry's forefront provides unique insights for national security officials transitioning to the private sector. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or on Spotify below:
Office of Strategic Capital FY24 Investment Strategy
The Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) recently unveiled its FY 2024 Investment Strategy. This strategy aims to attract and scale private capital for technologies critical to the United States' national security.
The Investment Strategy outlines the OSC's approach to identifying areas for strategic capital investment and prioritizes sectors crucial to national security. Specifically, OSC targets component-level technologies with broad commercial applications that are relevant to the United States and its allies and partners.
The unique financial approaches described are cost-effective and efficient, as they involve loans and loan guarantees requiring repayment, minimizing reliance on federally-appropriated funds.
The Investment Strategy also outlines the initial priority industries for OSC's attention in fiscal year 2024. Notably, the first program activity involves partnering with the Small Business Administration to extend loan guarantees to licensed funds for investments in critical component technologies.
Key Highlights:
Mission: Attract and scale private capital for U.S. national security technologies.
Approach: Prioritize component-level technologies via cost-effective loans and guarantees.
Focus: Component technologies with broad commercial applications relevant to national security.
For a comprehensive understanding of OSC's FY 2024 Investment Strategy, we encourage you to read the full document here. We look forward to witnessing the positive impact of these strategic investments and how they align with our shared goals at New North Ventures.
ODNI and CIA Release the Intelligence Community OSINT Strategy for 2024-2026
The ODNI and CIA have released the Intelligence Community OSINT Strategy for 2024-2026. New North Ventures is encouraged to see Intelligence Community (IC) leadership prioritizing OSINT and establishing a policy going forward. This essential source of information and intelligence has a strong history in supporting IC operations and analysis, and has recently come out of the shadows to play a pivotal role in the increasingly complex landscape of national security in recent years. It also figures prominently in discussions around artificial intelligence, digital authenticity and cognitive warfare, with the rapid proliferation of false information and images online.
In particular, we applaud the IC’s plan to “create new avenues for partnering with brilliant American innovators and like-minded foreign partners.” The private sector has the potential to play a central role in supporting OSINT requirements and we encourage the IC to actively seeking out these partnerships, taking steps to ‘suspend normal operating procedures’ as we did as a country post 9/11 so they can stay ahead of adversaries. The private sector is actively engaged on OSINT with disruptive technologies emerging that can be a powerful force-multiplier for the IC.
Official Press Release:
“The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has released the Intelligence Community (IC) Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Strategy for 2024-2026.
OSINT, or intelligence derived exclusively from publicly or commercially available information that addresses specific intelligence priorities, requirements, or gaps, is vital to the IC’s mission, providing unique intelligence value and enabling all other intelligence collection disciplines. Given the expansive and evolving open source environment, the IC has been working to modernize its approach to collecting, creating, and delivering OSINT, and the IC OSINT Strategy outlines the way forward.
“The IC OSINT Strategy represents the beginning of a long-term process that will professionalize the OSINT discipline, transform intelligence analysis and production, and create new avenues for partnering with brilliant American innovators and like-minded foreign partners,” said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
“As the IC’s Functional Manager for OSINT, I know the critical role that OSINT plays in defending our country and values,” said CIA Director William J. Burns. “In this pivotal moment, when OSINT is increasingly important and growing in demand, an IC-wide OSINT strategy is key to helping the IC move forward in a coordinated and determined way."
The strategic focus areas for action are:
Coordinate open source data acquisition and expand sharing
Establish integrated open source collection management
Drive OSINT innovation to deliver new capabilities
Develop the next-generation OSINT workforce and tradecraft
The IC OSINT Strategy is available here.”
Quick Links:
Founded: 2017
Key People: CEO Qasar Younis
Elevator Pitch: Advanced simulation infrastructure software designed to safely develop, test, and deploy autonomous vehicles.
Funding: The company raised $250 million of Series E venture funding in a deal led by Porsche Ventures, Lux Capital, and Elad Gil on March 12, 2024, putting the company's pre-money valuation at $5.75 billion.
Founded: 2022
Key People: CEO Daniel Magy
Elevator Pitch: Loitering munitions and mission-adaptable systems intended to build aerial weapons systems.
Funding: The company raised $12.5 million of venture funding from Lockheed Martin Ventures and other undisclosed investors on March 11, 2024.
Founded: 2021
Key People: CEO Ezra Feilden Ph.D
Elevator Pitch: In-orbit data processing services intended to be used in satellites. The company is currently operating in stealth mode.
Funding: The company raised $2.4 million of seed funding from Sterling Road, Everywhere Ventures, and Syntax Ventures on March 11, 2024.
Look for a new episode of Securing the Future Podcasts wherever you listen. In our most recent episode, we have Landon Winkelvoss, co-founder of Nisos, sit down with General Partner Jeremy Hitchcock for an engaging conversation about navigating the complex landscape of national security and entrepreneurship.
