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
