Lockheed Ventures, the investing arm of the aerospace giant, joined a $40.85 million Series A-2 round for Slingshot Aerospace, an Austin, Texas, firm providing space surveillance, simulation and analytics to make it safer for an estimated 10,000 satellites in orbit today.
The Bethesda, Md., firm is an existing investor in the five-year-old startup. San Francisco-based Sway Ventures led the round, with participation from ATX Venture Partners, Valor Equity Partners, Draper Associates and the United Kingdom’s C16 Ventures. In addition, Connecticut-based Horizon Technology Finance (Nasdaq: HRZN) provided an undisclosed amount of debt. So far, Slingshot has raised $110.55 million.
“Our successful funding round during a global economic downturn is validation that investors understand the urgent need for safe and sustainable spaceflight operations as activity in orbit outpaces current space traffic management constructs,” said Slingshot cofounder and CEO Melanie Stricklan, a 21-year veteran of the US Air Force. “We have an unprecedented opportunity in this next phase of growth as we continue to be a driving force to de-risk operations in the space revolution,” she added.
Slingshot used part of the proceeds to fund two recently announced acquisitions — the Space Domain Awareness division of consulting firm Numerica and Seradata, the space industry’s most authoritative database.
“Slingshot has aggressively and creatively carved a path to build new technologies that solve critical challenges and greatly reduce risks in space. Our investment in Slingshot is an investment in the future of space as we know it,” said Najib Khouri-Haddad, general partner at Sway Ventures.
Lockheed Wants More
Lockheed’s investment in Slingshot is part of a more ambitious bid by the aerospace giant to double portfolio investments to $400 million.
“The success of our venture capital investments to date is a testament to our strategy and allows Lockheed Martin to continue to deliver innovative solutions across all domains,” Jay Malave, chief financial officer of Lockheed Martin, said in the initiative announced in August. “Doubling our ventures fund will allow us to increase the number of startup companies we can work with to advance 21st-century security technologies.”
Besides Slingshot, Lockheed Martin Ventures has made at least five portfolio investments this year — Alloy Enterprises, Xona Space Systems, CloudNC, X-Bow Launch Systems and Electra.aero. In the year to date, it has invested in 12 new companies and about 70 since its inception in 2007.
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US Air Force veterans Melanie Stricklan and Thomas Ashman, who serves as the firm’s product director, struck upon the idea for Slingshot from knowledge gained in military space operations. While space infrastructure today is key to critical things ranging from electrical grids to financial networks and weather forecasts, complexity of the orbital environment poses ever-growing threats, the duo posited. Toward solving that critical problem, the duo roped in software architect David Godwin and started Slingshot in 2017, with the aim of building varied products that would ensure safety in space operations. Slingshot was incubated by Techstars Los Angeles.
Over the years, Slingshot has developed multiple patent-pending technologies and cutting-edge decision intelligence technologies. Its products include Slingshot Orbital Laboratory, an immersive space simulation training tool, and Slingshot Orbital product, a real-time air traffic control-like system for space.
Slingshot has developed varied partnerships with large U.S. defense and aerospace customers, including the US Air Force and NASA. To bolster its offerings, Slingshot earlier this year agreed to acquire two entities with whom it has partnered — Numerica’s powerful global sensor network and Seradata’s comprehensive space database. With Numerica, Slingshot will have 150 sensors and 30 telescopes across 20 locations around the globe.
