Success Spotlight on CYBERA, Fundings: Fortem Technologies, Astroscale, Daupler
1 March 2023 - A Weekly Publication by New North Ventures
Another major win this week for CYBERA, a developer of financial cybercrime platforms. The company has been selected to participate in Plug and Play Tech Center's prestigious accelerator program in Silicon Valley. CYBERA competed against 500 initial applicants, so making the shortlist is truly an outstanding achievement.
This selection is a testament to CYBERA's innovative approach to fighting cybercrime, which targets criminals where it hurts the most – their finances. By building better communication between the finance industry and law enforcement, CYBERA has the potential to revolutionize the global fight against financially motivated cybercrime.
At NNV, we have every confidence that this opportunity to pitch solutions to banks and crypto platforms will enable CYBERA to take significant strides toward achieving its mission. We look forward to seeing CYBERA's continued growth in the future.
Congratulations to the CYBERA team on this impressive achievement!
Founded: 2016
Key People: Co-founded by Adam Robertson and Timothy Bean
Elevator Pitch: AI-enabled drone object-detection system designed to provide assistance in airspace security and safety.
Funding: The company raised $17.8 million of venture funding in a deal led by Lockheed Martin Ventures, Hanwha Aerospace Company, and AIM13 CV Partners on February 21, 2023. DCVC, Signia Venture Partners, Boeing HorizonX Global Ventures, Toshiba, Mubadala Capital-Ventures, and other undisclosed investors also participated in the round.
Founded: 2013
Key People: Founded by Nobu Okada
Elevator Pitch: A space technology company that offers innovative and scalable on-orbit services, including life extension, in situ space situational awareness, end-of-life, and active debris removal, enabling sustainable space systems to mitigate the growing and hazardous buildup of debris in space.
Funding: The company raised an estimated $76 million of venture funding from Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi, and the Development Bank of Japan on February 27, 2023. FEL Corporation and 2 other investors also participated in the round.
Founded: 2016
Key People: Co-founded by John Bertrand and Ryan Rosenbaum
Elevator Pitch: An incident response platform designed to help cities and utilities respond to emergencies.
Funding: The company raised $514,000 of venture funding from undisclosed investors on February 27, 2023.
Inside Taiwanese Chip Giant, a U.S. Expansion Stokes Tensions
Employee doubts are rising as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s biggest maker of advanced computer chips, is upgrading and expanding a new factory in Arizona that promises to help move the United States toward a more self-reliant technological future.
Many of the workers said the project could distract from the research and development focus that had long helped TSMC outmaneuver rivals. Some added that they were hesitant to move to the United States because of potential culture clashes.
TSMC announced the Arizona factory in May 2020, initially pledging $12 billion toward it. In December, the company increased that to $40 billion, with plans to upgrade the factory with more advanced — though not the most advanced — chip-making technology.
The pressure for the Arizona factory to succeed is immense. Failure would mean a setback for U.S. efforts to cultivate the advanced chip manufacturing that mostly moved to Asia decades ago. And TSMC would have spent billions on a plant that did not produce enough viable chips to make it worth the effort.
TSMC’s first American investment in the 1990s also served as a cautionary tale when the company pushed an ambitious overseas expansion plan and created a chip-making subsidiary, WaferTech, in Washington State. Despite pledging to build multiple factories there, TSMC stopped at one after “a series of ugly surprises,” including high costs and a shortage of skilled labor.
Deep ambiguity about the future course of global economic activity is likely to cast a shadow over the private equity value chain through 2023’s first half, if not beyond.
Deal teams have become increasingly specialized over the past cycle and may have a keen understanding of how to evaluate the micro forces impacting a target company. But once every 10 years, macro matters— a lot—as the danger increases that the world will shift under your feet.
The current macro environment presents risks for any business, public or private. Yet, historically, private equity has outperformed the public markets across a broad range of interest rate and economic conditions. Ensuring that continues in this cycle will require a pivot in how most firms generate performance. Success will be less about piling on “max leverage” and playing the multiple arbitrage game.
Top Cybersecurity Official Calls to Make Companies Liable for Cyber Insecurity
Congress should advance legislation allowing software manufacturers to be held legally liable for the insecurity of their products, and it should also shield companies that develop secure software from legal liability, Cybersecurity, and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly said Monday.
Easterly’s proposal comes amid a CISA push for tech companies to offer products that are “secure-by-design,” meaning that security is baked into the design process from the beginning, and “secure-by-default,” which refers to products that arrive with secure settings at no additional cost.
However, Easterly hasn’t reached out to Congress or industry to gauge interest in the legislative proposal.
Look for an episode of Securing the Future Podcasts wherever you listen. In our latest episode, we have guest Daniel Turner sit down with General Partner Jeremy Hitchcock for an engaging conversation where Turner explores his path from the intelligence community to the startup world, his biggest takeaways as a first-time founder, and the application of his government background in the private sector. Listen below on Spotify.
