🇺🇸 The Veteran Fund Update: Q2 2024
The Veteran Fund Update: Q2 2024
The Veteran Fund proudly initiated our final close of Fund I on Independence Day 2024, a symbol of our commitment to proliferate liberty and advance America through venture capital.
With tensions rising from recent global events, now more than ever, we need strong, liberty-minded leadership to foster unity. This is the time to come together with a shared purpose behind what it means to be an American and ensure the preservation of liberty, democracy, and justice for all.
We believe unparalleled American leadership begins by empowering those who have graduated from the greatest leadership academy in the world, the United States Military. Combined with deep domain expertise and mindfulness practices, veteran founders are uniquely positioned to build technology companies that will positively impact the world. Anchored by our elite partners in the military, business and mindfulness communities, our team is launching the next phase of deployment into exceptional veteran-led companies who share our strong sense of purpose and heartfelt conviction toward improving our country and the world for the benefit of all humanity.
In our Q2 update below, we have some exciting announcements and updates about our portfolio companies, new investments, and important events. We ask that you share our newsletter with the leaders in your network, who deeply believe in our mission to advance America through venture capital.
Let’s go!
🚀 New Investments
The Veteran Fund is excited to announce our investment into Tern AI. Led by co-founders Shaun Moore and Navy Veteran Brett Harrison, Tern is providing an alternative to GPS, which is a single point of failure for the entire US economy due to increased threats from foreign adversaries who have shown capabilities to jam, destroy, and spoof the signals of GPS.
Tern formally closed their $4.4M seed round in May, which was featured in TechCrunch. Diana Furchtgott-Roth, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the US Department of Transportation, wrote an article in Forbes about how Tern is solving a key problem at the Department of Transportation (DOT). Tern was also selected for the award for the DOT’s Complimentary “PNT” (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) Challenge, signaling strong commercial customer interest.
Fulcrum Autonomy is a dual-use defense technology company leveraging decades of experience in design and manufacturing of unmanned systems and significant operational expertise to shape the future of autonomous systems.
Anchored by highly-accomplished founders and advisors from the military and premier government agencies, they are pioneering the unmanned systems space and emerging leaders in the development of advanced autonomy software and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance as a Service (ISRaaS) solutions. Strategically headquartered at Davis Airfield, just 20 miles north of Washington DC, Fulcrum’s 50-acre aviation-centric campus enables it to privately host clients and partners, receive requirements, develop solutions, prototype, test, demonstrate, and iterate all onsite. Their strategic global partnerships will facilitate mass production near key areas of operational interest, ensuring rapid deployment and scalability.
Double A Labs is a web-based video meeting platform for enterprises that increases attendee engagement through unique, interactive brand experiences. Led by CEO Amber Allen, the company has secured top-tier customers such as Google, Microsoft, Dell, AT&T, Disney, Whole Foods, MacMillan, NBA Cleveland Cavaliers, IBM, and NASA.
Tiffany Matloob, the Global Head of Creator Community at YouTube says that using Double A Labs technology, “YouTube has had a 1,150% growth in their partners attending their virtual training and learning sessions.” Given the strong customer demand, dramatic increase in user engagement compared to competitors, and unique meeting experience, we believe Double A Labs will be able to rapidly scale through civilian and military education platforms.
📈 Portfolio Highlights
Congressman Gabe Amo gave a speech on the floor of Congress about the importance of underwater drones, which led to an amendment for $3M into the defense bill for VATN. VATN also participated in an Advanced Capabilities Experiment with the Marine Corps in June where they trained Marines to use their vehicles within 30 minutes. The training was highly successful and facilitated follow-on funding and collaboration discussions.
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Haiku's federal and military customer base is rapidly expanding due to its innovative ability to create Digital Twins of computer networks using the Unity game engine. This technology enables cost-effective training, modeling, and AI-driven testing of network responses at a fraction of the cost of cloud based solutions. Haiku's other achievements include winning a Phase I SBIR through AFWERX for AI integration, being one of five winners in the 2024 DARPA Tools competition for 5G engineering training, and receiving Fast Company's "Innovation by Design Award."
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Foresight successfully closed their $2.3M pre-seed round and rebranded the company to Cyphr.Ai. The company continues to onboard new banking customers, including a Mastercard pilot expected to go live in Q3 2024. Cyphr was recognized for their growth and scale by Kansas City with 2 awards: The 2024 Emerging Small Business of the Year Award and the 2024 Scale Up Award. CEO and Army Veteran, Jannae Gammage, also received Kansas City’s Entrepreneur of the Year award.
🇺🇸 Featured Limited Partner: Brigadier General (Ret) Trent Edwards
General Trent Edwards is the former Director of Air Force Budget Operations and Personnel who formulated and executed the $80 billion Air Force daily operating, military personnel and civilian pay budgets. He served previously as the Programmer and CFO for a $10 billion Air Force Space Command mission, which included funding Air Force-wide cyber operations. He has extensive congressional experience and was assigned to the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Legislative Liaison, as the Chief of Congressional Affairs and served as a National Defense Fellow to a member of Congress.
Outside of his military career, General Edwards is the CEO of T.H. Edwards Consulting, specializing in aligning business capabilities to Department of Defense strategic priorities and future needs. He is on the Board of Directors for Navy Federal Credit Union, the Piedmont Conservatory for the Arts, and the Montgomery YMCA.
📆 Q2 Event Highlights
The Veteran Fund Spotlight by the NVCA
The Veteran Fund was featured by the National Venture Capital Association, the largest member organization of investors and venture capital firms in the country. Read the article here.
Mike Spoke at TechCon SoCal: The Largest Gathering of Investors in California (May 2024) and Plug & Play Summit in Silicon Valley (June 2024)
GP Mike Sherbakov gave inspiring talks at different events around the country on the topics of veteran leadership and dual-use investing.
VetVC Summit in NYC with JPMorgan Chase (June 2024)
GP Mike Sherbakov was joined by LPs Trent Edwards, Jen Pilcher, and fund partners Dan Sylvester and Dan Sennott (Holland and Knight) in New York City for the annual VetVC summit, hosted by JPMorgan Chase.
📣 Announcements and Events
Military Veteran Founder Showcase, featuring The Veteran Fund, AIN, and Context Ventures (July 30, 2024)
Join us for an exclusive online event where five outstanding US military veteran startup founders will pitch their innovative companies to a panel of investors and venture capitalists. These founders represent some of the best new companies from the Founder Institute network, all actively raising capital. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, an investor, or simply passionate about startups, this event offers a unique opportunity to see the future of innovation coming out of the military veteran community. Register here: https://fi.co/e/337778
Apply to the FI Veteran and Military Family Accelerator (Fall 2024)
The deadline for the Founder Institute Veteran and Military Family Accelerator Fall 2024 cohort is August 4th. This will be a fully virtual program running August 19 - November 12, 2024.
Any US veteran or military spouse can apply and join the program for free through our veteran and military family scholarship.
View the application and program details here: http://fi.co/veteran
Limitless Conference: Hosted by LP Ken McElroy (August 29-31, 2024)
Join LPs Ken McElroy, Chuck Heath, GP Lisa Song Sutton and Veteran Fund supporter Congressman Dan Crenshaw at the Limitless Conference in Dallas, TX.
Limitless is an annual conference that brings together American entrepreneurs to discuss real estate, economics, business and investing. Speakers include Ken, Chuck, Lisa, Congressman Crenshaw, Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), George Gammon (Rebel Capitalist) and others.
Sages and Scientists: Hosted by LP Deepak Chopra (September 14-15, 2024)
In collaboration with industry leaders Sam Altman, Marc Benioff and Gary Vee, join this prestigious event in Boston, MA where GP Justin Nahama will be moderating a panel to discuss Conscious Leadership with LPs Deepak Chopra, Dr. Matt Provencher, General Stan McChrystal, and GP Ryan Micheletti. Sages and Scientists is an annual symposium to unite an extraordinary assembly of the world’s foremost entrepreneurs, philosophers, doctors, scientists, and artists. The Symposium aims to ignite a convergence of minds that will pave innovative pathways for the well-being of humanity.
We are incredibly proud of the community of leaders we have united to support our mission of advancing America through venture capital. Thank you for your continued support and contribution toward the closing of Fund I. It is an honor to be stewards of this great community.
As always, if you know of a strong company led by an exceptional veteran founder, please share this with them.
With gratitude,
Justin, Mike, Lisa, Ryan | The Veteran Fund
The Veteran Fund General Partners with Andrea Fox Downing, advocate for TVF and Miss Texas 2018
🇺🇸 The Veteran Fund: Independence Day 2024
The Veteran Fund: Independence Day 2024
This Independence Day, The Veteran Fund is initiating the close of Fund I and we are honored to share a special message with you.
248 years ago, our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, risking their lives to protect our unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Many of these founders served in the military and made the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs, anchoring a new era of service. Their actions demonstrate that a small group of people, fueled by their conviction to build a better world, can fundamentally change the course of human history.
When we launched The Veteran Fund in 2022, we asked ourselves several questions: Has the world improved over the last several decades? Are people happier, healthier, more prosperous, and more free? Is America still the shining city on the hill?
Our team believes that, in many ways, the world has improved. However, in this age of connectivity, there is unprecedented uncertainty. People are more disconnected than ever, misaligned on common values and purpose, with divisiveness at the forefront of many conversations. Further, our nation’s greatest adversaries think and plan decades ahead. We must do the same.
Our intention with The Veteran Fund is to build a 100-year legacy institution to invest in the best leaders our country has to offer.
We believe exceptional American leadership begins by empowering those who have graduated from the greatest leadership academy in the world, the United States Military. Combined with deep domain expertise and mindfulness practices, these veteran founders are uniquely positioned to build technology companies that will positively impact the world. We are uniting leaders from the military, business and mindfulness communities who share a deep sense of purpose and heartfelt conviction toward improving our country and the world for the benefit of all humanity.
This Independence Day, we invite you to consider: What are you grateful for? What is your life’s purpose? What legacy are you building to improve the world?
Our team is deeply grateful for every member of The Veteran Fund community who supports our mission. Our community of liberty-minded leaders, including our investors, founders, and partners, are helping us build a much brighter future.
With our final close approaching, we ask you to join us. If our mission of advancing America through venture capital resonates, we’d be honored to welcome you alongside us.
Happy Independence Day and God Bless America,
- Mike, Justin, Lisa, and Ryan
The Veteran Fund Update: Q1 2024
The Veteran Fund Update: Q1 2024
The Veteran Fund made history last quarter through its portfolio company, Lonestar, by sending the Declaration of Independence to the moon as the first document transmitted to the lunar surface for storage.
Since our founding, The Veteran Fund’s core principles of leadership, purpose, and resilience have guided our investments in veteran leaders, building dual-use companies that are advancing America and her allies. We strongly believe the future of humanity is deeply rooted in liberty, which is the fundamental cornerstone of innovation. It is up to the builders of the world to ensure liberty continues to proliferate, not just in America, but throughout the world and into the cosmos.
In our Q1 update below, we are excited to share an invitation to LP Deepak Chopra’s premier global event, headlined by Sam Altman and Marc Benioff, and updates about our portfolio company highlights, new investments, and several important events.
As we sprint towards our Fund I final close on July 4th, we reflect on the incredible progress we have made and the invaluable community we have built to support the creation of veteran-technology leaders. We ask that you share our newsletter with the leaders in your network who deeply believe in our mission to advance America through venture capital.
Let’s go!
📈 Portfolio Highlights
On Thursday, February 22nd at 18:23 EST, the Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander named Odysseus landed on the Moon, carrying Lonestar Lunar’s Data Center Payload. This historic event is the first private lunar landing in human history. Lonestar successfully demonstrated the company’s ability to send, receive, and store data on the lunar surface.
Lonestar’s second mission to the moon is scheduled for later this year with customers purchasing all of its data storage capacity. The Veteran Fund participated in Lonestar’s Pre-Series A in January, doubling our investment in the company. We are now actively supporting Lonestar’s Series A. Please reach out for more details.
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Cyberspatial secured a $3.1M contract with the US Space Force to map selected Space Mission System networks! Once complete, the team will have the opportunity to expand to other mission systems in an increased contract size. Additionally, Cyberspatial was also selected for a $1M Defense Innovation Unit Prototype OTA for USCYBERCOM that has the potential to move into a full production OTA upon successful completion.
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Firestorm closed their $12.5M Pre-Series A round led by Lockheed Martin Ventures. The Veteran Fund doubled our investment into the company and attended the ribbon cutting ceremony with Congresswoman Sara Jacobs for their new 15,000 square foot manufacturing facility in San Diego. Read the Forbes article on Firestorm here.
🚀 New Investments
We are thrilled to welcome the team at Vatn Systems to The Veteran Fund portfolio!
Vatn builds affordable, autonomous underwater vehicles that act in cooperative swarms, enabling a multitude of use cases for the military and law enforcement. At the core of Vatn's R&D efforts is advanced navigation software that is effective in GPS, vision, and comms compromised environments. Vatn’s modular building block structure allows its vehicles to be tailored to the ranges, accuracy, and sensors required for every mission at the lowest cost. In addition to previous SBIRs, the team was recently selected for Phase 3 of the Office of Naval Research’s Advanced Capabilities Experiment.
As the US Navy navigates “contested logistics” and “attritable mass”, we believe the team at Vatn is leading the way in building the future of autonomous underwater vehicles. Learn more about Vatn: www.vatnsystems.com
Foresight is the winner of our third annual $100,000 Veteran Pitch Competition, with keynote address from Brad Feld, cofounder of Techstars.
Led by Jannae Gammage, a former Army Intelligence Analyst and serial entrepreneur, Foresight is utilizing AI to reshape lending products. Foresight’s intelligent application software for financial institutions eliminates manual intake and application processes. Unlike incumbent digital application softwares that solely collect data, Foresight's AI driven intelligent application underwrites applicants before they even click apply, producing an accurate, verified, and de-risked application in less than 15 minutes.
With the tailwinds of their successful pre-seed round and support from Bank of America leadership, Foresight has 15 banks as customers and is quickly expanding to the 300+ in their pipeline. Learn more about Foresight: www.tryforesight.io
🇺🇸 Featured Limited Partner: Lieutenant Colonel Joshua “Cabo” Gunderson
Joshua “Cabo” Gunderson is a former combat pilot who started his career at the United States Air Force Academy. During F-15 pilot training, he received several awards including Distinguished Graduate and Top Gun.
Josh executed multiple combat deployments throughout the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and earned the Raytheon Award, the Air Force’s top honor for aerial combat squadrons.
Since leaving active duty, Joshua serves in the Nevada Air National Guard as an F-22 Subject Matter Expert, works for a private company as a corporate pilot flying the Challenger 300 aircraft, and consults for aviation clients. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn and Instagram.
📆 Q1 Event Highlights
The Veteran Fund Annual Summit in Las Vegas (February 2024)
The Veteran Fund hosted an incredible two day summit in Las Vegas with our Limited Partners and portfolio companies. We enjoyed intimate team building through dinners and an offsite event at Prairie Fire, where we had a special audience with retired 4-star General Scott Miller.
In addition to strategic fund updates and working sessions with our LPs, Dan Magy, CEO of portfolio company Firestorm, provided an inspiring & confidential presentation, leading into their now publicly announced $12.5M closed seed round, led by Lockheed Martin Ventures.
Lisa Spoke at SXSW For Women in Venture Panel (March 2024)
GP Lisa Song Sutton was invited by Dell for Startups to represent the fund on a Women in Venture at SxSW in Austin, Texas. She connected with young female investors and educated them on defense tech investing.
How to Build a Moonshot with Chris Stott, CEO of Lonestar (April 2024)
GP Ryan Micheletti and Lonestar CEO, Chris Stott, had a great conversation about the lunar landing and the future of space tech in front of a global audience. Watch the replay here.
📣 Upcoming Event Invites
FI Veteran and Military Family Accelerator Graduation with Kelly Perdew
General Partners, Ryan and Mike, are excited to host the graduation of the Founder Institute Startup Accelerator on May 21, 2024 at 10am PT.
Join us to see an inspiring keynote from Kelly Perdew, a military veteran and venture capital investor at Moonshots Capital, and watch several founders from the new graduating cohort pitch their startups. Register to watch here.
The Veteran Fund House Building Project in Mexico
To commemorate the upcoming close of Fund I, The Veteran Fund invites you to join us for an impactful team building experience, constructing a home for a deserving family in Mexico, July 26-28, 2024. GP Mike Sherbakov has been leading these impact trips over the past decade and we are excited to spend a weekend giving back alongside our community. All are invited; please indicate your interest here.
The Return of Deepak Chopra’s Acclaimed Sages & Scientists Symposium at Harvard University
Highlighting the Veteran Fund’s commitment to infuse mindfulness into the premier veteran-led teams we support, our LP Deepak Chopra is uniting global leaders in wellbeing and technology on September 14-15, 2024.
Headlined by Deepak, Sam Altman, and Marc Benioff, the symposium brings together thought leaders and experts who offer groundbreaking solutions to unlock the greatest human understanding and potential. Veteran Fund partners will have access to a private event with Deepak at the symposium. With limited spots available, please email our team if you’re interested in attending.
We are deeply appreciative of great individuals like you that have come alongside us to support The Veteran Fund.
We planted a flag in the ground to advance America through venture capital and will continue to use our platform to unite our community and build a brighter future for all.
Please join us before our final close on July 4th 2024, and forward our update to the leaders in your network who believe in our mission.
With gratitude,
Ryan, Lisa, Justin, and Mike | The Veteran Fund
