New Speakers Announced, Fundings: Allure Security, The Exploration Company, AI Dynamics
08 February 2023 - A Weekly Publication by New North Ventures
The High Consequence Leadership Summit is coming Fall 2023! We have an amazing lineup of speakers that are covering topics ranging from geopolitical trends, team building, and mental resilience.
Announcing new speakers for the High Consequence Leadership Summit:
Ben Coleman - Founder of Reality Defender, Serial Entrepreneur
William McHenry - Defense Innovation Unit Senior Advisor, Intelligence Community and Military Veteran
Amanda Von Goetz - Founder of Fermata Discovery, Concert Pianist
Joe Bonvie - Senior Operational Psychologist Consulting Special Operations Personnel
Preparation, grit, and an ability to see opportunities in chaos is what consequential leadership is all about.
Founded: 2009
Key People: Co-founded by Salvatore Stolfo Ph.D and Angelos Keromytis
Elevator Pitch: Behavioral analytics software designed to secure devices from cyberattacks both inside and outside the enterprise.
Funding: The company raised $9.88 million of venture funding in a deal led by Gutbrain Ventures on February 3, 2023. Glasswing Ventures, alongside 4 investors, also participated in the round.
Founded: 2021
Key People: Co-founded by Hélène Huby, Jon Reijneveld, and Sebastien Reichstadt
Elevator Pitch: Reusable spacecraft designed to democratize space exploration. The company engages in developing, producing, and operating a modular and reusable orbital vehicle enabling new-space players to participate in the space exploration race.
Funding: The company raised EUR 40.5 million of Series A venture funding in a deal led by EQT Ventures and Red River West on February 1, 2023. July Fund, Partech, and 9 other investors also participated in the round.
Founded: 2015
Key People: Founded by Rajeev Dutt
Elevator Pitch: A cloud-based enterprise platform designed to develop custom-tailored artificial intelligence applications for enterprises.
Funding: The company raised $0.05 million in later-stage venture funding from an undisclosed investor on February 6, 2023.
U.S. Has Failed to Halt North Korea’s Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons
Currently, North Korea reportedly has between 40 and 60 plutonium or enriched uranium-based nuclear weapons, with the capability to mate these nuclear weapons to an array of short, medium and long-range ballistic missiles.
Kim Jong-un recently declared that North Korea will exponentially increase its nuclear weapons arsenal, including tactical nuclear weapons, and enshrined a new law permitting the pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons automatically if its leadership or command and control centers are threatened.
South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol and President Biden have agreed that U.S. extended nuclear deterrence – nuclear umbrella – commitments need to be enhanced, with the active participation of the Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultative Group.
How Elon Musk’s Satellites Have Saved Ukraine And Changed Warfare
The Starlink constellation currently consists of 3,335 active satellites; roughly half of all working satellites are Starlinks. In the past six months new satellites have been added at a rate of more than 20 a week, on average.
A huge part of the traffic flowing through the system currently comes from Ukraine. Starlink has become an integral part of the country’s military and civil response to Russia’s invasion.
Around 150,000 people were using the system every day. The government quickly grew to rely on it for various communication needs, including, on occasion, the transmission of the nightly broadcast by Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president. Because the satellites and their associated terminals are easily portable and can be rigged to run off a car battery, they are ideal for use in a country where the electricity and communication networks are regularly pounded by Russian missiles.
U.S. Outbound Investment into Chinese AI Companies
Based on available data in Crunchbase, between 2015 and 2021, 167 U.S. investors participated in 401 investment transactions—or 17 percent of 2,299 global investment transactions—into Chinese AI companies.
Collectively, observed transactions involving U.S. investors totaled $40.2 billion invested into 251 Chinese AI companies, which accounts for 37 percent of the $110 billion raised by all Chinese AI companies. However, we do not know the exact portion of the $40.2 billion that came from U.S. investors.
The U.S. government is not currently in a position to effectively monitor, measure, or regulate outbound investment flows to Chinese AI companies.
Look for a new episode of Securing the Future Podcasts wherever you listen. In our latest episode we have guest Marc Losito, sit down with General Partner Jeremy Hitchcock for an engaging conversation where Losito explores his path to Army special operations, his biggest takeaways from his military experience, and the application of technology in national security. Listen below on Spotify.