US Innovative Technology Fund
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Altana Closes $200M Series C to Enable the Public and Private Sectors to Take Command of Global Value Chains
Altana, the world’s first Value Chain Management System, today announced a $200 million Series C investment led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund (USIT). The funding round included participation from March Capital, Generation Investment Management, Salesforce Ventures, Friends and Family Capital, and each of Altana’s key existing investors, including GV (Google Ventures), Activate Capital, Floating Point, and OMERS Ventures. The funding brings Altana’s valuation to $1 billion.
Altana is tackling some of the world’s thorniest problems – from building economic security, to mitigating carbon emissions, to protecting critical industries and infrastructure. Its Value Chain Management System unlocks solutions that have never been possible before at scale by bringing applied AI to the infrastructure of global commerce. These include: the first-ever system to provide accurate Scope 3 carbon measurement; the ability to root out forced labor from customers’ supply chains; the ability to intelligently coordinate supply and demand across multiple tiers of the supply chain to reduce costs and working capital; the ability to price and insure against the risks of supply chain business interruptions; and, the ability to defend critical supply chains from geopolitical adversaries.
The world’s most important public and private sector organizations, including Maersk, Boston Scientific, ZF, the Lloyd’s Insurance Market, US Customs & Border Protection (US CBP), and multiple UK government agencies through the UK Global Supply Chain Intelligence Programme, all use Altana to manage their multi-tier, global value chains.
Halo Industries Closes $80 Million Series B Funding Round Led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund
Halo Industries, Inc., the creator of a laser manufacturing technology platform for the semiconductor industry, announced it raised up to $80 million in its oversubscribed Series B funding round. Led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) with participation from 8VC and SAIC, the funding will help Halo Industries scale the commercialization and reach of its technology and advance its mission to establish the new gold-standard of silicon carbide substrate production.
Halo Industries’ proprietary laser-based tools and processing technologies enable efficient, precise and high-quality manufacturing that minimizes the cost, waste and environmental impact associated with traditional manufacturing methods. The company manufactures several materials used for semiconductor production, including silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, which serve as the building block of efficient high voltage power electronics. Leveraging SiC wafers for power devices enables greater power output and system performance while being smaller, lighter, and more robust than traditional materials. SiC is a hard, brittle material that is challenging to cut without losing meaningful amounts, and Halo Industries’ proprietary laser-based slicing tools significantly increase yield and quality of SiC while minimizing waste and production cost.
Celestial AI Closes $175 Million Series C Funding Round Led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund
Celestial AI™, creator of the Photonic Fabric™ optical interconnect technology platform, today announced it raised $175 million in its Series C funding round led by Thomas Tull’s U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT). In addition to USIT, the round included participation from new and existing investors including AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Temasek, Temasek’s wholly owned subsidiary Xora Innovation, IAG Capital Partners, Samsung Catalyst, Smart Global Holdings (SGH), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Engine Ventures, M-Ventures and Tyche Partners.
Amid the explosive growth in demand for generative AI applications and next-generation data centers, hyperscalers are increasingly constrained by utility power availability, memory capacity and high cost of operation. Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric optical interconnect technology addresses these critical challenges by revolutionizing memory and compute fabrics. This transformational solution provides the foundational technology for users to continue making advancements in AI while maintaining scalable, sustainable and profitable business models. This latest round of funding will enable Celestial AI to execute multiple large-scale customer collaborations focused on commercializing its breakthrough Photonic Fabric technology platform.
Shield AI Raises $200M, Reaching $2.7B Valuation
Shield AI, the defense technology company building the world’s best AI pilot for aircraft, today announced it has raised $200 million in Series F funding in an oversubscribed funding round. This funding, led by U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT) and co-led by Riot Ventures, with participation from Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest and returning investors Disruptive and Snowpoint, values Shield AI at $2.7 billion.
Shield AI builds an AI pilot called Hivemind, which enables teams of intelligent aircraft to operate autonomously in high-threat environments on the edge, without the need for remote operators, command inputs, or GPS. The technology approach is similar to those in the self-driving car industry and its software stack is aircraft agnostic, allowing Shield AI to provide autonomy to a variety of form factors across the aerospace industry. This announcement comes on the heels of the company’s recent launch of its V-BAT Teams product. This product enables a single human operator to command a minimum of four V-BATs, generating real-time AI-driven flight paths, and exhibiting dynamic read-and-react behaviors autonomously. Except for lethal decision-making, V-BAT Teams can complete missions from start to finish without the need for an operator or pilot.