Autonomous systems have become essential to military operations around the world, but there is almost no infrastructure available to integrate these systems at scale. As a result, operators in the field are often limited to a one-to-one relationship with only one system at a time. Picogrid wants to change that by building a platform that can integrate everything from sensors and cameras, to drones, weapon systems and robotics.
“This problem is really inherent in how the military operates today.” Picogrid co-founder and CEO Zane Mountcastle explained.
Part of the problem is simple inefficiency: If a soldier only has access to, say, a long-range infrared camera, he might be able to spot a target on the front line but not be able to do anything about it. The issue then becomes autonomous focus systems in an integrated network that can be leveraged in any way the end user needs.
Mountcastle understands the problem all too well: He saw many of these issues firsthand at his previous venture, a defense services company called Mission Mule, which he co-founded in 2018. Working alongside members of the military, he built field sensors and autonomous systems and deployed to military bases in the US
“To see how difficult it was to put these systems into real operations was really, really shocking to me,” he said. “I spent weeks at a time with these people hitting the desert in 4x4s [vehicles], doing these different projects, and I was pushing them all the time, why don’t you make your life easier? Why don’t you do something? A lot of it seemed like very low-hanging fruit to me. I kept getting the same response or over and over, which is, “We don’t have access to this.”
He and his co-founder, Martin Slosarik, aim to change that with Picogrid. The four-year-old startup has developed a suite of hardware and software aimed at integrating the archipelago of devices that have become essential for everything from protecting soldiers on the battlefield to safeguarding critical infrastructure. At the core of Picogrid’s technology is a cloud-based API called Legion, a middleware solution used to pull data from several discrete third-party systems, as well as two hardware products, Lander and Helios.
The Lander is designed for long-duration, stable operations and missions, while the Helios is optimized for front-line mobility. Hardware is not a foreign add-on to the software stack. it’s part of how Picogrid aims to get Legion into the hands of end users. Both platforms are designed to provide power, communications and computation for the startup’s growing list of sensor integrations.
To further its vision, the company just closed a $12 million seed round led by Initialized Capital with participation from Starburst Ventures, Credo Ventures, Giant Step Capital, Domino Ventures and Alumni Ventures.
“It’s really a matter of multiplying the effectiveness of each individual soldier by giving them access to very large fleets of systems of whatever type they need for that task,” Mountcastle said.
Image Credits: Picogrid
Picogrid has won over a dozen federal contracts and currently has over forty hardware installations on six US military bases, as well as installations in Ukraine. The company will roll out facilities at a seventh and eighth military base in the coming weeks. The startup has a few small contracts outside of the military in the wildfire and utility space, but it’s mostly focused on military applications.
As the funding round shows, Picogrid is planning big things for 2024. That includes opening a second production facility in Oklahoma and building additional hardware platforms. Importantly, the company also plans to use the Legion platform and open it up for developers to leverage. To date, Picogrid has built integrations in-house. But Mountcastle said the team realized that to scale the system, it would have to give full access to third parties to integrate with it.
“You can probably imagine how that would make a lot of military people uncomfortable because it’s never really happened,” he said.
Indeed, this is far from the status quo in the defense industry, which is typically wary of open systems from both a cybersecurity and reliability perspective. But Mountcastle said much of the new seed funding will go toward making sure the Legion remains safe even as it opens.
Giving access to third parties could also help solve another pervasive problem in the defense industry: getting technology developed by start-ups or small businesses into the hands of end users. With Picogrid’s system, even small experimental systems can be tested in real operations, he said.
Even in the four short years Picogrid has been around, Mountcastle said he’s seen a “narrative shift” in the way people think about defense technology.
“This is really, really exciting about this defense technology landscape today that even a few years ago didn’t exist. I have experienced this. People would say ah, you’re on defense, why do that? This is stupid, go sell the business,” he said. “Seeing that narrative change and seeing the industry change has been really encouraging to me because I understand how bad it is from the inside and I understand how much need there is to spawn a bunch of other companies in this space.”
Correction: The article originally stated that Picogrid had six facilities across the US, with plans to expand to Ukraine in the coming weeks. The story has been updated to reflect that Picogrid has over forty hardware installations on six military bases, in addition to already being deployed in Ukraine.
