Exclusive: Picogrid Raises $45M Series A
AI Analysis
Picogrid, a defense tech startup specializing in hardware and software integration, has raised $45M in Series A funding. The company focuses on creating a common operating picture by connecting disparate defense technologies, including those used in counter-UAS and drone warfare. Picogrid is already cash-flow positive and has existing deployments with a growing partner ecosystem.
Key Takeaways
- Picogrid’s Legion platform integrates data from various sensors and systems (drones, radars, etc.) with platforms like ATAK and Palantir’s Maven.
- Helios and Portal provide edge computing and networking infrastructure for connecting assets in both fixed and dismounted operations.
- The company’s partner ecosystem includes major defense primes (Northrop Grumman) and emerging tech companies (Skydio, CHAOS Industries, Echodyne).
- Picogrid has achieved significant traction with minimal funding, demonstrating a strong market need for integration solutions.
- The funding will be used to expand product development, increase deployments, and enter new operational domains.
Why It Matters
The proliferation of drones and other advanced technologies necessitates robust integration capabilities to avoid information silos and maximize effectiveness. Picogrid’s solutions address this critical need, potentially becoming a key enabler for joint all-domain command and control (JADC2) and enhancing counter-drone capabilities. Their focus on interoperability positions them as a valuable partner for both the US military and allied forces.
Exclusive: Picogrid Raises $45M Series A
Picogrid’s Helios edge node. Image: Picogrid
Picogrid is proving that teamwork really does make the dream work.
This morning, the El Segundo-based hardware and software integration startup announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it has raised $45M in a Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners to expand its product family, increase deployments, and take its integration tech into new operational domains.
- New investors Washington Harbour and GSBackers participated in the round, alongside existing backers Initialized Capital, Starburst Ventures, Credo Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Giant Step Capital, and defense industry angels.
Running a tight ship: Picogrid, which has run on just $12M in seed funding since its founding in 2020, is a bit of an anomaly in the defense tech space.
The company didn’t need to raise capital to build out and validate prototypes—their stuff is already deployed, and the company’s been cash flow positive “for a while,” CEO and co-founder Zane Mountcastle told Tectonic. “For every dollar we’ve raised, I think we’ve made $2 in revenue.”
- To put it in perspective, Picogrid cracked the top 50 in this year’s Silicon Valley Defense Group’s NatSec100 report with $12M in VC funding. The next closest company had raised $140M.
Race to integrate: The fact that Picogrid is laser-focused on making all of the new tech—and companies—coming onto the scene work together is a big reason for that sustained growth with minimal outside capital.
The more tech that’s introduced into the ecosystem—from drones to radars, sensors, and software—the greater the need for the digital glue that gets it all on the same page. Luckily, Picogrid builds both the hardware and software connective tissue for all of y’all’s shiny new tech.
The company’s products include:
- Legion: Picogrid’s flagship data platform that fuses information fed from different systems to integrate physical assets, streamline data, and connect to operational tools, like ATAK, Palantir’s Maven Smart System, and other platforms. Think of it as a connective tissue between the many sensors, autonomous systems, and software on the battlefield.
- Helios: A portable “Expeditionary C2 Node” that provides the physical hardware infrastructure and edge compute to connect different assets in the field to each other and Legion.
- Portal: A smaller edge compute and networking node that fits into a backpack for dismounted operations.
Friends everywhere: Another reason for Picogrid’s fast growth is its ever-growing partner ecosystem.
No one makes friends faster than a hardware integrator, and Picogrid has over a hundred buddies that use Legion and Picogrid’s hardware to play nicely with others. The Picogrid clique includes everyone from primes like Northrop Grumman to startups including CHAOS Industries, CX2, radar-maker Echodyne, Skydio, and Palantir.
Per Mountcastle, Picogrid’s growth has become a “sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, whe