Fortem Technologies, Inc. announced the close of an additional $5.5M round led by Signia Venture Partners and Data Collective (DCVC). Fortem Technologies, Inc. provides advanced radar systems and associated software systems for manned and unmanned aircraft as well as its own modern air defense system known as the Fortem DroneHunterTM.

The Fortem TrueView Radar model DAA-R20 enables companies to use drones to provide safe and cost-effective package delivery services, large infrastructure inspections, border patrols, etc. Also human pilots of general aviation aircraft and helicopters can fly safely in a more crowded airspace with TrueView Radar.

"Last year, Fortem successfully adapted a radar technology used in the US Department of Defense drone program over the last 6 years," said Timothy Bean, CEO of Fortem, "The result is TrueView Radar for use in the commercial drone market; it's a proven, complete and safe technology. The performance, size, cost, and power consumption of the TrueView Radar is unmatched in the industry."

"Fortem's innovative design - and the battle tested trade secrets created in the crucible of real world deployments -- is here today to support a wide range of new commercial drone applications," said Ed Cluss, Partner at Signia Venture Partners and Fortem board member. "I've worked with Tim in the past and am very optimistic what he and the Fortem team will continue to accomplish under his leadership."

The Fortem DroneHunterTM is an unmanned aircraft that uses the TrueView Radar, machine learning, specialized guidance systems, and an open command & control system -- all built by Fortem -- to autonomously fly toward unwanted drones in the sky -- without a human pilot on the ground - and detect, track, classify, monitor via video stream, inspect, and safely capture the intruder drone at a safe distance from the protected area. Fortem's DroneHunterTM is the world's first counter-drone system that operates beyond line of sight (BLOS) using radar to protect a perimeter day and night from unwanted air threats. Fortem DroneHunterTM is available today for evaluation.

"Fortem is delivering proven capabilities to US civilian security professionals and military leaders that were the stuff of science fiction just ten years ago", said Matt Ocko, DCVC's Managing Partner and Fortem board member. "What attracted us was Fortem's use of AI and novel signal processing algorithms to deliver similar capability to building-sized radars - and the beyond-line-of-sight coordination of entire fleets of drones - in the size of a couple of hard-back books, all consuming less power than a light bulb."

Timothy Bean, Fortem's CEO, has a 20-year career leading successful technology startups. His focus has been on cyber-security and very large scale deployments of mission critical infrastructure applications for governments and globally dispersed enterprises. His teams have won individual awards of $50M as well as accounted for over $500M in annual product revenues.

Co-founder and CTO Adam Robertson has been at the forefront of drone and radar technology for more than two decades. Most recently, he was the VP of Engineering at IMSAR, where he oversaw their radar development projects for the US Department of Defense totaling over $100M of radar deliverables.

"I'm very excited to be working with Adam to bring to market a proven technology and augmenting it with machine learning, secure data collection and services, and an open command & control platform for our customers," said Bean. "We are grateful to our investors, who share our vision, and to our customers who are collaborating with us on their very demanding military and commercial use cases."

Cluss asks, "How does one live in a drone world, and feel safe? With a modern air safety and security company. That's how we see Fortem."

Fortem Technologies will be exhibiting the next generation Fortem TrueView Radar and the new Fortem DroneHunterTM product during AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2017 in Dallas on May 8 through May 11. Please visit Fortem Technologies, Inc. at Booth 2857.

About Fortem Technologies, Inc.

Fortem Technologies, Inc. is a privately held company that enables safe autonomous airborne operations. Fortem Technologies' proven solutions allow organizations to transition their unmanned aircraft operations beyond human line of sight as well as protect their most precious resources from threats in the air. More at www.fortemtech.com.

About Signia Venture Partners

Signia Venture Partners is a unique early-stage venture fund dedicated to helping passionate entrepreneurs realize their vision and build impactful, high-growth ventures. Our team is made up of proven entrepreneurs with a track record of success and experience at every stage of growth and with a hands-on approach to technology investing. More at www.signiavc.com.

About Data Collective

Data Collective (DCVC) is a venture capital fund that invests in entrepreneurs applying deep compute, big data, and IT infrastructure technologies to transform giant industries. Data Collective and its principals have backed brilliant people changing global-scale businesses for over twenty years, helping create tens of billions of dollars of wealth for these entrepreneurs while also making the world a markedly better place. More at www.dcvc.com.