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Defense, robotics, and AI compute are reshaping national resilience, industrial competitiveness, and the future of security.
Drones, autonomy, robotics, and AI compute aren’t just technologies. They’re shaping national resilience, industrial competitiveness, and global security. Founders in these areas carry both opportunity and responsibility, and we back them with conviction.
Defense and manufacturing are complex, regulated, and capital-intensive. From long procurement cycles to integration with prime contractors, we know the friction points founders face, and how to help them navigate.
Legacy systems and suppliers are slow to adapt, leaving gaps that startups can fill. Whether it’s counter-drone defense, AI-driven manufacturing, or resilient supply chains, we see where the needs are urgent and adoption is possible.
We invest at the earliest stages, before incumbents or mainstream capital catch on. Our focus is on unproven but transformative technologies with the potential to redefine how industries operate.
Our network includes founders and operators who have built and scaled in defense, aerospace, robotics, and manufacturing. We know the difference between a lab prototype and a deployable system, and we help founders bridge that gap.
Frontier technologies aren’t incremental. They rebuild supply chains, modernize industrial bases, and secure nations. We partner with founders whose missions are as ambitious as the markets they’re reshaping.
Remo Health offers virtual dementia care led by top neurologists, with personalized support, care coordination, and a free online community—so caregivers are never alone in navigating the journey. We invested in Remo Health out of our seed fund in 2022 and they’ve gone on to raise close to $8M in funding.
Blooming Health provides purpose-built, inclusive technology solutions to connect older adults to social care community resources like senior centres. They help older adults build social connections in a personalized way, no matter their socio-economic status, identity, or technology capabilities. They preserve trusted human interactions as the front-end to the solution while leveraging data and technology on the back-end.
Blanka's technology makes it easy for brands of any size to source and customize the highest quality beauty products. Founded by a 2x entrepreneur and 30 Under 30 recipient, Blanka's platform is the wholesale hub and fulfillment partner for branded beauty. Kaylee joined Forum's Accelerator Program in 2021 where the team was able to scale rapidly and raise a 3.7M CAD Seed round in 2023 led by Dundee Venture Capital, with participation from Storytime Capital and Disruption Ventures.
Arkestro is an AI Powered software to automate negotiation for enterprise procurement. Edmund joined Forum’s Accelerator Program in 2018 as BidOps before rebranding to Arkestro. In 2022, they raised a $26M Series A led by NEA, Construct, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) and Four More Capital, a division of Henry Crown & Company.
Allen Control Systems is developing autonomous counter-drone defense platforms that change the economics of the battlefield. By combining advanced robotics, AI-driven detection, and layered defense, ACS enables militaries and governments to counter rapidly proliferating drone threats at scale. Backed by Forum Ventures since 2023, the company has raised over $30M in funding, launched an Innovation Lab to accelerate next-generation autonomous defense technologies, and is building strong momentum with major defense customers.
Finni Health provides world-class behavioral healthcare for children with Autism. Bucky joined Forum’s Accelerator Program in 2020 and closed their $3.2M Seed round in 2023 led by General Catalyst, with participation from YCombinator, Wayfinder Ventures, Andrew Adams (Headway), and Divya Bhatt (Virta).
Private AI develops privacy-preserving machine learning and natural language processing tools making privacy and GDPR compliance reliable. Patricia joined Forum's Accelerator Program in 2019, and then we re-invested through our Seed fund in 2021. Private AI has since gone on to raise an $8M Series A led by BDC Capital with participation from new investors GIT1K, and Panda Angel Partners.
People Data Labs enables companies to build innovative, trusted people data driven products at scale. Sean and his team joined our San Francisco Accelerator Program in 2015 and we were the first check into the company. They have since gone on to raise more than $55M across a seed, Series A and Series B from funds including Susa Ventures, Craft Ventures, 8VC and Founders Fund.
Fireflies.ai is an AI assistant for meetings that records and transcribes voice meetings. Co-founders Krish and Sam joined our San Francisco Accelerator Program in 2017. Today, their team operates out of 5 continents. They raised $5M in seed funding in late 2019 led by Canaan Partners, and in 2021 raised a $14M Series A led by Khosla Ventures.
Chris joined our NYC Accelerator Program in early 2020. His company, FirstBase, provides remote worker setup for companies. FirstBase raised a $2M round at the end of our program, and with sales skyrocketing, raised a $13M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz only 9 months later. Within two years of joining Forum’s portfolio, they raised a $50M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins.
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