Squadra News: Welcome UFORCE to the Squad, Sean Plankey as US CEO
Portfolio companies won major credibility at SOF Week from operators across land, air, and sea.
Our portfolio represents companies from across mission sets, from autonomy to manufacturing to cybersecurity to space. They have built technologies that are fielded and serving the needs of operators today. That differentiation was crystal-clear at last month's SOF Week.
Not only did Dan Madden and Dominic Ventimiglia take the helm for the squad supporting our portfolio companies in customer engagements and product demonstrations, but they brought the community together, too.
We were proud to join forces with Red Cell Partners to host the defense and venture community for an evening reception. If you check out the recap and photo album you'll see is the most important thing of all, the people that power these innovations forward.
Consider this your go-to snapshot of what's happening this month and how to engage.
In this edition you will find:
🏆 Funding announcements and contract awards
✨ Ready to rock at Reindustrialize
🚀 Major reading from the Squad in First Breakfast
Company News to Celebrate
UFORCE raised $50M from Lakestar, Shield Capital, Ballistic Ventures, Squadra Ventures and others. Led by CEO Oleg Rogynskyy and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, the UK-based company is a roll-up of Ukrainian startups all of which have combat-proven unmanned warfare technologies fielded on land, air, and sea. Rapidly expanding production outside Ukraine and support to other allied militaries, UFORCE has named national security leader Sean Plankey as the company’s US CEO. Read more on LinkedIn and in Forbes.
Primordial Labs has been awarded a Phase III contract with the 49th Operations Group at Holloman Air Force Base. Working alongside the US Air Force’s MQ-9 Formal Training Units, the team will deliver licenses for their natural language next-generation warfighting interface to RPA pilots and sensor operators, reducing cognitive load and sharpening mission execution. Read more in the announcement on LinkedIn.
Airbase was named to the Black Flag 100, an annual list recognizing the most exciting next-gen deep tech companies flying under the radar as nominated by founders of later-stage startups. Read the announcement from Black Flag.
Endolith was awarded the "Best Overall Venture" at the National Laboratory of the Rockies Industry Growth Forum. The lab is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for energy systems research and development. Read more on LinkedIn.
PDW received a strategic investment from Booz Allen Hamilton. In alignment with BAH’s growing portfolio of autonomy capabilities, the investment aims to directly support the Pentagon’s focus on domestic drone manufacturing and autonomous drone capabilities at scale. Read the press release from BAH.
Network Highlights to Share
2-of-3 Keeps You Alive, 3-of-3 Scales: Guy Filippelli sat down with Peter Tarrant of PilotShip Partners to share his take on what most allocators are getting wrong. Our team’s favorite line: “Three things have to be true to win at scale, and you have to underwrite all three: a magnetic founder, phenomenal tech, and a sales team that can drive the lane and score. 2-of-3 keeps you alive. 3-of-3 is what scales.” Read the interview on LinkedIn.
CI/CD for Controls Teams: Copia Automation has launched Copia Actions, an industrial code workflow engine that brings the best practices of CI/CD automation to controls teams. Replacing manual hours assembling audit reports, backup verification scripting, and chasing down drift, the product automates the workflows behind automations for PLC, HMI, and robotic-controller code. Read the announcement on LinkedIn.
Avoidable Surprises: The squad had our first article published in First Breakfast, a defense tech SubStack publication curated by Palantir Technologies CTO Shyam Sankar. Penned by Dominic Ventimiglia and Jarret Lane, chair and co-founder of the NC Critical Technologies Alliance, the two share lessons in drone failures from their service in the Middle East and how we can act on emerging threats before they scale in the future. Read the article in First Breakfast.
Open Roles Across the Squad
✈️ Overwatch Imaging is hiring a Business Development Director to scout, qualify, and close new business opportunities across the U.S. Department of War and the broader federal defense and intelligence ecosystem. Location: Hood River, OR
💥 Aurelius Systems is hiring a Senior Director of Government BD to shape, pursue, and help close opportunities across the services and adjacent agencies. Location: Remote
🛸 PDW is hiring an Executive Assistant to the CEO to manage the CEO’s day-to-day calendar, support company and executive events, assist with internal and external comms and oversee the company’s master calendar. Location: Denver, CO
🛡️ Shift5 is hiring a Deployment Strategist for Remotely Piloted Aircraft to support customer success, operational execution, and growth across unmanned aerial vehicle programs and mission environments. Location: Arlington, VA
🐸 Primordial Labs is hiring a Field Deployment Engineer to serve as the tactical bridge between the engineering team and operators. Location: Remote
Up Next this Month
Amplify the Night at IMS — 6/9: Ready for all things RF and microwave tech at the annual IMS conference? Dominic Ventimiglia will be headed to Boston alongside the Falcomm team showcasing their fabless semiconductor technologies. Join them for happy hour. Register on Luma.
Building a Resilient Software Supply Chain — 6/11: Join NetRise CEO Thomas Pace for a webinar discussion with Ben Denkers, Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy, Product and Growth at Booz Allen Hamilton. While most organizations think they’re doing enough, this conversation will reveal the truth. Register on LinkedIn.
Reindustrialize Rock City — 6/16-17: The Squadra portfolio is headed to Detroit in full-force for the annual Reindustrialize conference. Attending CEOs represent innovations from across the manufacturing, defense, energy, and aerospace industries. Ready to rock? Reply to this email.
Maritime Cyber Resilience Summit — 6/23-25: The MTS-ISAC brings together global maritime leaders in Orlando to discuss the cyber and resilience challenges shaping the future of the Maritime Transportation System. UFORCE US CEO Sean Plankey will keynote the conference. Learn more.
Final Look from the Field
L3 Harris and Overwatch Imaging shared a big headline at SOF Week detailing the effectiveness of their combined payload-platform solution for autonomous ISR missions. With Overwatch Imaging's Automated Sensor Operator software, WESCAM EO/IR video gimbals are transformed into multi-mission intelligence tools with force-multiplying capabilities not possible by manual operation alone.
While demonstrations were shared on the expo floor, in this month's "Final Look" ASO can be seen live in the field.
Here an aerial attack helicopter outfitted with an MX-10 video gimbal from L3Harris WESCAM is paired with ASO, delivering a real-time, multispectral map of a fast-moving wildfire in Australia.
Squadra Ventures is a venture capital firm led by founder-operators that invests in early-stage national security companies advancing the critical edge.
Grounded in the belief that success is a combination of people, product, and planning, the Squadra team provides transformational support to startup leaders in the complex dual-use technology ecosystem. By applying a growth-stage mindset at the seed stage and a commitment to building alongside entrepreneurs, Squadra empowers extraordinary teams to win and leave a lasting positive impact on the world.
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