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On August 20, DEFCON AI, an insights company that’s building a next-generation modeling, simulation, and analysis (MS&A) toolset for the modern military environment, announced that it has raised $44 million in seed funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Fifth Growth Fund and Red Cell Partners, among others. As part of the financing, Christopher Wan of Bessemer joins DEFCON AI’s board of directors, alongside independent board member Dr. Ray O. Johnson, former CTO of Lockheed Martin and Bessemer operating partner.
“At DEFCON AI, we are developing powerful solutions to reshape response planning in contested and disrupted environments,” said DEFCON AI Co-Founder and CEO Yisroel Brumer. “We bring to the DoD our capacity to very quickly field transformational software innovation so that defense leaders and planners have the tools they need to effectively coordinate operations and plan around disruptions. Our ability to do this dramatically improves the odds of materiel and manpower making it to their destinations without delay. At a time when near-peer competitors are stepping up their investments in intelligent military technology, such capabilities could mean the difference between winning and losing wars within the next decade.”
A Red Cell Partners’ incubation, DEFCON AI has achieved remarkable growth since its inception in 2022. It previously closed millions of dollars in Department of the Air Force Phase II and Phase III Small Business Innovation Research contracts and delivered its first product to strong customer feedback.
“Few organizations can take high-end software engineering and artificial intelligence expertise and combine it with a deep understanding of battlefield and defense operational requirements to rapidly deliver the kinds of technology that the DoD needs, the way we can at DEFCON AI,” said Gen. (Retired) Paul Selva, a DEFCON AI co-founder and its chief strategy officer. “With algorithms that are built to allow planners to immediately respond to disruptions, we have already established ourselves as a valuable partner to the DoD.”
DEFCON AI will use the funds raised to grow its team, enhance its R&D program to expand its dual-use offerings, and extend its core capabilities across an array of defense missions as well as the commercial sector to allow public and private entities to swiftly and efficiently predict and respond to disruptions.
“The security of the U.S. increasingly depends upon innovative software that delivers speed, intelligence, and resilience, which is why Bessemer is proud to fund defense tech startups like DEFCON AI,” said David Cowan, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners. “DEFCON AI’s extraordinary team of career public servants and military leaders is uniquely positioned to partner with the Defense Department to build smarter, more nimble logistics capabilities.”
The Hon. Mark T. Esper, chairman of Red Cell’s National Security Practice and former Secretary of Defense, said, “In an era of great power competition marked by increasing complexity, unpredictability, turmoil, and danger, DEFCON AI works to reduce these factors and empower decision makers at all levels when it comes to conducting mobility and logistics operations across a full range of scenarios. With this latest round of funding, DEFCON AI is positioned to not only continue to support the Defense Department, but to enable commercial enterprises to get products where they need to be in a faster, better, and more economical manner.”
Source: DEFCON AI
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