Full disclosure: This article mentions investments by TEDCO, a Technical.ly Ecosystem Builder client. That relationship is unrelated to this report.
Update: This article has been updated since initial publication to include comment from Shift5 CEO Josh Lospinoso. (6/12/2023, 5:24 p.m.)
Shift5 adds another $33 million
A little over a year after it last made funding headlines, Arlington, Virginia-based Shift5, a cybersecurity firm for military platforms and critical transportation systems, announced a new raise.
The company just raised $33 million in additional financing for its Series B led by Moore Strategic Ventures. Booz Allen Ventures, JetBlue Ventures and Teamworthy Ventures also took part in the round. Shift5 initially raised $50 million in February 2022, led by Insight Partners. In total, the company has raised $108 million.
CEO and cofounder Josh Lospinoso told Technical.ly via email that the latest raise helps the company get its products to market faster and more robustly, among other internal supports.
“The Series B extension provides Shift5 the ability to accelerate its go to market, invest in its product road map, and expand the infrastructure necessary to support its rapidly growing commercial and federal businesses,” he said. “It allows us to delve deeper with our current strategic and venture capital partners like Booz Allen Hamilton and JetBlue Ventures to further capture defense and commercial aviation market share.”
Giftory raised $10 million
Giftory, a DC-based retail tech startup, just raised $10 million from Otium Capital.
Giftory, which was founded in January of this year, built a platform to curate experiences that customers can buy as gifts or purchase for themselves. According to Otium, this investment opens up another opportunity in the gifting economy. The company, which did not share how it will spend the funds going forward, was founded by Eric Lauer, who was also the cofounder and CEO of Artur’In.
“We’re targeting a very big $700 billion gift market where people are shifting from offering stuff to own to experiences to live, and we’ve seen it first hand after going live a month ago here at Giftory,” Lauer wrote in a Linkedin post about the news. “People want to offer experiences they will live together and talk about for years to come while wrapping it with a personalized touch and message to share the love.”
Proof.VC raised $135 for Fund III
Reston venture capital firm Proof.VC said it has raised $135 million in its third fund, according to a DC INNO report. The firm began raising its third fund in November 2021, about a year after closing its second fund at a total of $120 million in December 2020. That second fund amounted to more than triple its first fund of $36.4 million. Proof — which stands for “Pro-rata opportunity fund” — was founded by Backus and Thanasis Delistathis (both of whom were cofounders of Reston-based New Atlantic Ventures ) and John Burke, founder of True Ventures.
Here’s who else made funding waves in June:
- Easton, Maryland’s Ferretly, a startup that screens potential hires’ social media, raised $1.5 million in a seed round led by Bull City Venture Partners. Seed Round Capital and investors including Dave Dickerson also participated in the round.
- Reston-based Zoomph, which built software to measure the success of partnerships in sports and entertainment, completed an undisclosed Series A. Jurassic Capital led the round, with participation from Lalotte Ventures.
- Ashburn, Virginia’s CodeLock received a $75,000 grant from the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC). The company created a platform that helps make software development more secure.
- Maryland funding agency TEDCO made a number of investments this month. The entity invested $200,000 into Bethesda’s Keep Company, $300,000 into Frederick’s Nanocrine and $350,000 into Tao Treasures, also based in Frederick.
- According to a new report from CBInsights, Tysons-based health tech company Somatus is the highest-valued unicorn in the region at $2.5 billion. Other regional chart-toppers are Bethesda, Maryland’s Aledade at a $2.1 billion valuation; ID.me and Upside, both at $1.5 billion; and Arcadia at $1.48 million.
- From 2011 to 2021, Amazon Web Services invested $51.9 billion in Virginia, according to the company’s latest economic impact statement. The company’s East Coast headquarters is in Herndon, Virginia.
- Manassas-based Electra Aero, which is building an all-electric airplane, received an undisclosed grant from VIPC. In 2022, the company raised a Series A led by Lockheed Martin Ventures.
Government Contracting:
- Accenture Federal Services, headquartered in DC, won a $329 million contract with the United States Agency for International Development to manage an information assurance and privacy platform.
- Reston’s Science Applications International Corp, better known as SAIC, was chosen for a $64 million award from the Space Development Agency. Through the deal, SAIC will be developing and maintaining the Battle Management Command, Control and Communications Application Factory for a group of orbit satellites.
- DC’s IndyGeneUS AI inked a partnership deal with the Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center to develop a pocket detection pouch. The device will rapidly inform users of potential exposure to environmental hazards and infections.
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