Drone manufacturer Tective receives its first investment from the SecFund. This fund provides early-stage funding to Dutch startups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs that meet the innovation needs of the Department of Defense. SecFund is starting with a fund capital of €25 million with the goal of growing this to €100 million by 2025. The fund invests up to a maximum amount of €5 million per company.
Delft-based Tective enables automated deployment of drone swarms through the SkyHive. The SkyHive acts as an autonomous airfield in which 5 in-house developed drones can take off, land and change batteries. The drones, equipped with multiple cameras, map areas quickly and efficiently without the need for a pilot. Automatic monitoring of large areas thus becomes possible: think border areas or critical infrastructure. But SkyHive also comes into its own in the civilian sector, such as agriculture, by helping to detect weeds and viral diseases cheaply and scalably. SecFund is investing with Tenzing Alpha to enable further development and scale-up of the company. In partnership with the Department of Defense, the focus is on production security.
Great interest
Innovative companies in the defense sector experience more frequent barriers to obtaining funding compared to companies in other sectors, European Union research shows. Raising venture capital poses a major challenge. Not only because the capital needs of these companies are very high, but also because financiers are reluctant to invest in companies that co-supply defense. The SecFund should bridge this gap and contribute to national security, innovativeness and economic growth.
The SecFund focuses on dual-use companies. These are companies that develop products or services that can be used both civil and defense. An example is LiFi: a new generation of data transmission, which is faster than WiFi and can transfer more data per second, or consider advanced radio technology.
Since the announcement last October, more than 100 companies from across the Netherlands expressed interest in the fund. A number of these companies have been asked to participate in the test phase of the process over the past few months, in order to create a start-up portfolio as a fund. Some of these interested companies have potential, so Tective is now the first to receive an investment.
Dual-use in defense and civilian
The SecFund is a collaboration of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Regional Development Companies (ROMs). The implementation of this fund with national coverage is invested in the Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM) in cooperation with the other ROMs. This makes optimal use of existing knowledge and experience in investment and venture development.
"To give our people the best stuff, we need the most innovative people and companies in the Netherlands. The SecFund gives a big push to start-ups and scale-ups to bring their innovations into production at a rapid pace to get them to our warfighters. Essential for our security," said Gijs Tuinman, State Secretary of Defense.
"With the investment in Tective, the SecFund is now truly underway. The great interest in the fund underlines the need of entrepreneurs for this new dual-use funding instrument. As regional development companies, we are ready to accelerate innovation for defense. We wish investment director Ernst Coolen and the national team of SecFund every success ", Brigit van Dijk - Van de Reijt, ceo Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM) on behalf of ROM-Nederland.
Fund open for applications
Interested companies can apply here. Here they will find more information, a quick scan to see if the funding instrument is right for their business and have the opportunity to apply.