Fortem Technologies Raises $15M Series A to Advance Airspace Safety and Security
Funding supports company's ability to scale to meet growing global demand for TrueView radar system
SALT LAKE CITY - March 15, 2018 --
Fortem Technologies, Inc., an innovator in airspace awareness and intelligence, announced today that they have closed a $15 million Series A funding round led by DCVC (Data Collective) with key participation from Boeing (NYSE: BA), the world’s largest aerospace company, and Mubadala Investment Company, as well as Manifest Growth, New Ground Ventures and founding investor, Signia Venture Partners.
Fortem Technologies provides the world’s most compact, high-performance radar system for detecting airborne objects, a revolutionary safety capability for unmanned and manned aircraft. The Fortem TrueView radar system is small enough to be deployed on an aircraft to allow customers to build intrinsically safe air taxis and helicopters, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles that can operate autonomously beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
Safe BVLOS operations are crucial for the future of autonomous air vehicles.
“By cracking the difficult BVLOS challenge, we unlock emerging forms of flight, including everything from autonomous air taxis to lifesaving deliveries,” said Timothy Bean, CEO of Fortem Technologies, Inc. “With the wonderful support from all our investors and the addition of Boeing and Mubadala, Fortem can scale more quickly to simultaneously improve airspace safety and secure critical infrastructure.”
The Fortem TrueView radar system can simultaneously track thousands of objects-each smaller than a soda can, traveling at high velocity, across a 360-degree field of view. Lightweight and low power, TrueView R20 weighs only 1.5 pounds and consumes less power than an LED street light.
“By delivering proven, powerful and compact radar systems for safe unmanned flight, Fortem Technologies supports Boeing’s commitment to the responsible introduction of future autonomous air vehicles,” said Steve Nordlund, VP of Boeing HorizonX.
“Mubadala is excited to work with Fortem and its outstanding leadership team to help grow its business to new markets,” said Ibrahim Ajami, Head of Mubadala Ventures. “We strongly believe the TrueView radar is essential to maintain a safe airspace for both the aircraft and the critical infrastructure on the ground.”
Fortem Technologies is building ground-based intelligent airspace monitoring systems for BVLOS drone corridors and active “Drone No Fly Zone” protection. These systems can scale from a single building to an entire metropolitan area. The system becomes an intelligent network of mobile and fixed locations creating a detection fabric that permeates an entire region, delivering a real-time data stream of the location and velocity of all airborne objects.
“Fortem keeps the airspace safe from building to metropolitan scale, while also delivering solutions to actively detect and safely remove drones that pose a threat to critical infrastructure,” said Matt Ocko, Managing Partner at DCVC. “This kind of breakthrough airspace safety requires distributed radar intelligence on the ground, and on drones, all fast, accurate, low-power and cost-effective at scale. We’ve seen everything in this arena, and we are doubling down on our investment in Fortem because literally, no one else can do this.”
When necessary, this intelligent airspace system can then dispatch security resources, including fleets of Fortem DroneHunters. The Fortem DroneHunt is fully autonomous BVLOS hunter drones, guided by the long range onboard Fortem TrueView radar system — fused with other sensors – to safely remove any drone from a no-fly zone without risk to civilians.
“Fortem’s disciplined approach to solving complex and pressing airspace safety challenges is impressive,” said Ed Cluss, Managing Director of Signia Venture Partners. “They continue to execute against their plans while innovating in areas that have proved challenging for the industry and we believe they can help fuel the promise of a drone economy.”
About DCVC
DCVC (Data Collective) is a venture capital fund that backs entrepreneurs applying Deep Tech to transform giant industries. DCVC and its principals have supported brilliant people changing global-scale businesses for over twenty years, helping create tens of billions of dollars of wealth while also making the world a markedly better place. More at www.dcvc.com,
About Mubadala
Mubadala is a pioneering global investor, deploying capital with integrity and ingenuity to accelerate economic growth for the long-term benefit of Abu Dhabi. As Abu Dhabi’s leading strategic investment company, Mubadala is active in 13 sectors and more than 30 countries around the world, creating lasting value for our shareholder, the Government of Abu Dhabi. More at www.mubadala.com
About Signia Venture Partners
Signia Venture Partners is a unique early-stage venture fund dedicated to helping passionate entrepreneurs realize their vision and build impactful, high-growth ventures. Our team is made up of proven entrepreneurs with a track record of success and experience at every stage of growth and with a hands-on approach to technology investing. More at www.signiavc.com.
About Fortem Technologies
Fortem Technologies is the leader in airspace awareness, security, and defense for detecting and defeating dangerous drones. Through an advanced, end to end system of distributed radar, AI at the Edge, deep sensor integration, and autonomous drone capture, Fortem monitors and defends the world’s venues, infrastructures, cities, and regions. The same system is accelerating the safety of the world’s airspace for urban air mobility. Based in Pleasant Grove, Utah, the company is privately held and backed by Toshiba, Boeing, DCVC, Mubadala Investment Company, Signia Venture Partners and others.