Hi Eric,
This will be a quick update since it has been just a little over a week since the last one.
Total = 361 (+7)
Our legal counsel is looking into the details of setting up our scout program, as previously mentioned. This will require LPAC approval once we finalize the details. If all works out, the first investment recipient will be Guardian RF, a team of two very talented Georgetown University physicists working on a portable counter drone system as well as other EW solutions. See their white paper attached. The entire EW space is a blind spot for us and we are delighted that there are fresh efforts starting to pop up. It is not as sexy as drones but we desperately need innovation in this area.
We have two upcoming events.
We have secured a fundraising Q&A session on April 30 for our portfolio companies with David Cohen, celebrated serial entrepreneur and seed stage investor, founder of Techstars, the largest accelerator fund in the world.
We are helping organize a defense hackathon in London in partnership with Skyral and Apollo Defense. We have once again set the requirements based on the Ukrainian military needs. More and more we are able to turn defense events across the globe towards what is relevant in this war where otherwise they would still be discussing Iraq/Afghanistan (!). Anton will be physically present in London to mentor all participants.
There was a Cipher Brief conference in Kyiv last week. The top panel was moderated by D3 Partner Elya. Three out of the four drone producers on the panel are D3 portfolio companies and we were not the ones selecting! The mood at the conference this year was quite different. The US was referred to as an unreliable partner throughout the conference.
Elya, Dmytro (Ailand Systems), Ivan (Buntar), Vitaliy (Airlogix) at the Cipher Conference
We have a new LP, the combined team of founders of Uklon, the Ukrainian version of Uber. This is a group of self-made tech entrepreneurs who have now turned their energy towards Ukraine's victory. They have been donating/investing in miltech with the right approach and we felt completely aligned with them. This is a big deal since it is the first Ukrainian LP we will have. They are now going through KYC and we will be reaching out to all our existing LPs soon for approval on this addition. This LP is investing $700K. Thanks to our associate Taras for this lead!
We are planning our 1st LP Annual Meeting for May. We will come to NYC to meet you. Stay tuned!
<aside> 💡 You can find previous updates on the link.
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Slava Ukraini🇺🇦
Eveline