Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Business

Ex-military founders raise $20m to scale secure defence and disaster response platform

by June 3, 2025
June 3, 2025
Ex-military founders raise $20m to scale secure defence and disaster response platform

A tech startup founded by two British military veterans has raised $20 million to expand its secure coordination and payments platform for defence, humanitarian and disaster response teams.

Labrys Technologies, co-founded by Royal Marines veteran August “Gus” Lersten and former army linguistics specialist Luke Wattam, developed its flagship platform Axiom to address growing concerns over “shadow IT” in high-risk environments — where official secure systems are bypassed by quick-fix tools like WhatsApp, Signal or Wickr.

The platform has already been approved for use by the UK Ministry of Defence and deployed by NATO member states and humanitarian agencies, including the Ukrainian emergency services during the Kakhovka dam disaster in 2023.

“A lot of the public sector and adjacent organisations rely heavily on chat apps that weren’t built for this purpose,” said Lersten, now CEO of Labrys. “You don’t always know who’s on the other end, there are no checks or task verification, and you can’t ensure compliance. That’s a massive trust and security gap.”

Labrys aims to bridge that gap with a platform that blends military-grade security with real-time coordination tools, user verification, and secure payments infrastructure. The $20 million Series A round was led by Plural, the investment firm co-founded by Wise’s Taavet Hinrikus. The latest raise brings Labrys’s total funding to $25.5 million.

Plural partner Sten Tamkivi said the firm backed Labrys because it addressed a critical blind spot in modern defence and resilience operations. “So much innovation in this space is hardware-driven. But coordination — who’s where, doing what, and being paid — is just as important. Labrys brings order and trust to those chaotic environments.”

Rather than replace encrypted chat apps entirely, Axiom works alongside them. The system can recognise approved participants on a call and alert users to any unfamiliar or unauthorised presence — avoiding scenarios like the recent incident where a journalist was accidentally added to a Signal chat used by US defence officials.

Lersten said the real-world use cases are growing. “We live in a world where the police may need to collaborate with the army, who may need to coordinate with 1,200 civilian volunteers to respond to a flood. If your solution requires a 16-day onboarding process for a secure system, you lose the ability to act quickly.”

The platform also includes tools for HR, task management and compliance monitoring, with payment infrastructure that can support cryptocurrency-based transactions using stablecoins such as USDC and USDT. It is already being used by logistics, aid and development agencies to securely manage teams and transfer funds in real time, even in remote or high-risk locations.

Labrys currently employs 21 people and reports seven-figure annual revenues. It plans to expand its team and scale the platform’s adoption within both public and private sector organisations.

Lersten believes the technology has long-term potential beyond the defence and humanitarian sectors. “We’re starting with high-trust, high-stakes environments, but the need for secure, distributed coordination is growing everywhere. As companies go global and workforces become more mobile, they need systems that can manage verification, workflows, and compliance across borders and time zones.”

The investment comes as UK defence policy undergoes a major overhaul. On Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer unveiled the government’s latest defence review, promising to move the UK towards a state of “warfighting readiness” and “mobilise the nation in a common cause”.

For Labrys, the timing could not be better. As public and private organisations rethink how they coordinate people on the ground — whether in war zones, flood zones or supply chains — the company is positioning itself as the connective tissue between security, flexibility and speed.

Read more:
Ex-military founders raise $20m to scale secure defence and disaster response platform

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
HMRC launches crypto crackdown with new data-sharing rules for platforms and traders
next post
Wordsmith AI becomes fastest Scottish startup to hit $100m valuation

You may also like

City Investment Firm Calls for Doubling of Minimum...

February 20, 2024

Afro Hair Transplant in Turkey: A Popular New...

May 20, 2025

Carpet Cleaning: Calling in the Specialists

March 9, 2023

April Retail Sales Plummet Due to Severe Weather...

May 24, 2024

Electric truck maker Volta fails after supply chain...

October 18, 2023

Thousands of UK jobs at risk as uncertainty...

December 10, 2024

The Clarkson Effect: how Clarkson’s Farm is driving...

May 26, 2025

What will the customer experience look like in...

December 12, 2022

Fears grow that Tata Steel could be excluded...

June 5, 2025

Women’s private pensions worth 35% less than men’s...

June 6, 2023

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • The Best Five Sectors, #22

      June 9, 2025
    • Half of Brits would trust AI for legal advice, survey finds – but experts urge caution

      June 9, 2025
    • Business leaders paralysed by risk warn BDO as caution stifles growth

      June 9, 2025
    • Starmer pledges £1bn investment to supercharge UK tech and AI infrastructure

      June 9, 2025
    • 5 terrifying flashpoints that could ignite global war

      June 9, 2025
    • HMRC inheritance tax investigations surge 37% as treasury seeks to plug revenue gap

      June 9, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,161)
    • Investing (2,019)
    • Politics (15,572)
    • Stocks (3,137)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved