The round was funded solely by Lightspeed Venture Partners and led by partners John Vrionis and Larsen Jensen.

"Citadel delivers a world class solution that clears the skies of unauthorized drones, helping keep US soldiers, critical infrastructure and soft targets safe," said Daniel Magy, CEO & Co-Founder of Citadel. "We are excited to work with the team at Lightspeed to continue building a business that is already working to keep US soldiers safe in several conflict zones. This investment will help advance our industry leading technology, accelerate product growth, and extend our sales capabilities."

"Larsen and I are humbled to partner with the Citadel team. This is a group that has the vision and the skills to solve an enormously important problem and are the clear leaders in their field," said John Vrionis of Lightspeed.

ABOUT CITADEL:

Citadel Defense Company has developed a proprietary counter drone system that is automated, simple, and multi-layered. Citadel has entered the Counter-UAS (C-UAS) market advancing its technology via partnerships with stakeholders who are experts in the defense industry. Citadel has six current military and government clients, including the United States Department of Defense, the Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental (DIUX) and the Special Operations Communities. Citadel has already successfully deployed a number of systems to active combat zones. Citadel's machine learning enabled technology is uniquely able to overcome encryption advances and is configurable for uses cases ranging from fixed site to mobile to man-portable. Along with CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Magy, Co-Founders Joseph Makol and Dr. Henrik Borgstrom lead a team that is made up of experts with commercial and military drone backgrounds that bring decades of experience in delivering cutting edge high tech solutions.

ABOUT LIGHTSPEED VENTURES PARTNERS:

John Vrionis brings nearly two decades of building dynamic businesses, while Larsen Jensen brings a background as a former Navy Seal, together providing unique insight and additional access into the defense community. This investment represents John Vrionis's second investment in the drone space after Kespry, an industrial drone intelligence and data capture platform founded in 2013.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise and Consumer sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 300 companies globally, including Snap, The Honest Company, Nest, Nutanix, AppDynamics, MuleSoft, and GrubHub. The Firm currently manages over $4 billion of committed capital and invests in the U.S. and internationally.