Latest news with #PeterGoldsborough
Technical.ly
a day ago
- Business
- Technical.ly
Defense tech and cyber companies are securing millions across the DC region
The DC region witnessed several large venture capital raises this summer, despite nearby federal unruliness and the presidential takeover of the city this week. Cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and defense technology companies dominated the region's cash flow over the last couple of months, including a $24 million Series A by the AI military logistics software company Rune Technologies in Arlington, Virginia. Data center technology firm Emerald AI also launched with a $24.5 million seed, and cyber firm Virtru in DC raised $50 million and doubled its valuation. Get all the details on the latest money moves below the chart, where we look at the top 10 companies hiring for tech jobs in the DMV, and how that's changed. Arlington defense tech startup closes $24M Series A Rune Technologies, which is developing predictive software for use in battlefields, will put the funds toward expanding its team and building its product TyrOS, cofounder Peter Goldsborough told The majority of Rune Technologies' staff is in the DC area, and the plan is to expand to a workforce of 40 by the end of 2025. Rune Technologies has deployed its software within the US Army and Marine Corps. With the funds, leadership will also look to land new business across the Department of Defense and military services. This round was led by Human Capital with participation from Pax VC and Washington Harbour Partners, plus a list of existing investors. 'We are thrilled and incredibly honored to have the support of some of the top investors in the defense technology sector,' Goldsborough said, 'including Human Capital.' $24.5M for data center energy innovation Emerald AI in DC is developing software to enable data centers to adjust energy consumption depending on how much power is needed. Radical Ventures led the round with participation from NVIDIA's venture capital arm NVentures, AMPLO, CRV and Neotribe. The team will use the funds to develop its product dubbed the Emerald Conductor, founder and CEO Varun Sivaram told 'We're honored to partner with changemakers like Radical Ventures, NVIDIA, and so many more to help America win the AI race,' he said, 'by freeing up the energy needed to support innovation while ensuring the stability and efficiency of the energy needed for everyday Americans.' DC data security firm Virtru nabs $50M This raise doubled the cybersecurity firm's valuation to $500 million. Virtru's platform is used by private sector giants like JPMorgan Chase and Capital One, plus the Department of Defense. The funds will help Virtru expand its customer base in both the private and public sectors. 'This funding strengthens Virtru's position as the leader in data-centric security that extends beyond the perimeter,' CEO and cofounder John Ackerly told 'While many data security vendors focus on discovery and classification, and tagging of data for purposes of preventing data from being lost or stolen — Virtru provides the critical 'last mile' of protection when data is actively shared outside organizational boundaries.' Other DC raises and awards Government technology firms Avenu Insights and Intellectual Technology merged to create a new company in Centreville, Virginia. Neumo will focus on payment software for local, state and federal governments. The firm has a valuation of more than $3 billion, but financial terms were not disclosed. A platform for beauty entrepreneurs called Beauty Mogul International won $5,000 in an accelerator program in Maryland's Prince George's County hosted by M&T Bank. Booz Allen Ventures in McLean, Virginia, invested in the cybersecurity startup Corsha, also in Northern Virginia. The amount was not disclosed. Federal government contractor Organizational Development Resource Group in Arlington landed $3 million from the Empower the Change Fund, a venture funneling investments to underrepresented entrepreneurs. AI cyber compliance startup in Reston, Virginia, launched with $3.6 million in funding. Health tech company One Village in DC brought its total funding to $1.5 million after securing investment from AARP and angel investors. This is an extension of its pre-seed round. DataTribe, a startup foundry in Fulton, Maryland, closed a $41 million fund to invest in cybersecurity startups, the Washington Business Journal reported. Defense space tech company Quantum Space in Rockville, Maryland, secured $40 million in a Series A extension. More from Securities and Exchange Commission filings $3.1 million for NextgenID in Fairfax, Virginia $1.1 million for Webmob in DC $7.1 million for Obviant in Arlington $28.5 million for Medcura in Riverdale, Maryland $1.4 million for Qwerx in Vienna, Virginia $14 million for Nisos Holdings in Arlington $4.5 million for Disaster Technologies in Alexandria, Virginia
TechCrunch
21-07-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Anduril alums raise $24M Series A to bring military logistics out of the Excel spreadsheet era
Silicon Valley is doubling down on defense as geopolitical tensions rise and appetite for modernizing warfare grows. And while many of the startups garnering large valuations are focused on hardware and weaponry – think Anduril, Shield AI, Skydio – Rune Technologies wants to tackle AI-enabled software for military logistics. 'The U.S. military runs on Excel spreadsheets and white boards and manual processes right now to execute logistics operations,' co-founder David Tuttle told TechCrunch. 'Logistics is never the sexiest part of the military. The technology industry emphasis is on how do we make things go boom? How do we build great weapons systems?' Logistics, Tuttle says, usually falls behind when it comes to innovation. And he should know. Earlier in his career, he was a field artillery officer in the U.S. Army. Later, he served with the Joint Special Operations Command before going on to work at Anduril, where he met his co-founder, ex-Meta and ex-Marine Corps Peter Goldsborough. The two founded Rune after seeing how much modern warfare has changed the scale and pace at which armies have to sustain force. 'Ukraine is a sad example of the expenditures of munitions, the consumption of supplies, and those types of things in a near-peer adversary conflict – they will break human-centric and analog-centric processes,' said Tuttle. Rune's flagship product TyrOS promises to transform manual logistics processes into intelligent supply webs that predict future needs, optimize current resources, and enable distributed operations – even from a disconnected laptop in the middle of the jungle. The startup has just raised a $24 million Series A off the back of pilot deployments under the Army and Marine Corps. The round – which Human Capital led with participation from Pax VC, Washington Harbour Partners, a16z, Point72 Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, and Forward Deployed VC – will go towards expanding TyrOS deployment into other U.S. military services. TyrOS has two major selling points. The first is its technical capabilities as a mission command system for logistics. TyrOS relies on deep learning models, including time series models, to forecast supply and demand assets like personnel, transportation, equipment, food, and other resources based on hundreds of environmental and supply variables. Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW 'A logistician thinks about not just, What do I have on hand from supplies?, but also, What vehicles do I have to move that?' said Tuttle. 'What qualified crews do I have to drive that vehicle? What routes is that vehicle going to go over? And is that threat-informed? Is a bridge blown up on the route that we need to reroute around?' Tuttle says the team at Rune – two-thirds of which are veterans – is also working to integrate generative AI into TyrOS for 'course of action generation,' enabling the system to digest massive datasets in real-time battle space environments so that logisticians and commanders can query it on the fly. And while LLMs have advanced rapidly, TyrOS still relies on traditional mathematical optimization for certain tasks – like planning aircraft loads based on cubic volume and other constraints – where precise calculations are essential. TyrOS's second major hook is its edge-first architecture that bypasses the need for constant connectivity to remote servers, allowing the system to operate independently and synchronize when communications are reestablished. In other words, TyrOS is 'cloud-capable, but not cloud-required.' 'Building software today from a cloud environment standpoint is very different architecturally than if I'm building software to run literally on this laptop in the jungle in the Philippines with Marines or soldiers.' Tuttle said. TyrOS is also cloud- and hardware-agnostic; it can run on program-of-record hardware server stacks that the military uses today for ease of integration, per Tuttle. The co-founder noted that Rune's backers include executives at both Palantir and Anduril, where he sees plenty of partnership opportunities. Rune was recently selected for the Palantir Startup Fellowship and announced its integration earlier this year with Palantir's Defense OSDK (Ontology Software Development Kit to enable automated logistics from the tactical edge to the strategic layer. Automating the gap between tactical-level intelligence and strategic decision-making is Rune's long-term vision. 'I'm not just worried about sustaining this for the next 30 or 60 days,' Tuttle said. 'I'm worried about how this might impact production decisions back in the defense industrial base. That's the vision we want to get up to. How do you drive tactical level data all the way up to the operational level, to the strategic level, to potentially drive the production of artillery shells?'
