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Australian open-source intelligence software company Fivecast has secured US$20 million in funding from local and US investors.
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US-based cyber security venture capital firm Ten Eleven will join existing Australian backers from the CSIRO’s Main Sequence and the South Australian Venture Capital Fund, managed by Artesian.
Fivecast has high hopes to expand and service contracts in data and risk analytics for governments and corporations.
The company provides OSINT technology powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning to aid defence, intelligence, police, border security, and corporations in keeping society safer.
Fivecast chief executive officer and co-founder Dr Brenton Cooper said the software enables the targeted collection and risk analysis of publicly available information for specific use cases, such as identifying extremists, terrorists, drug trafficking, and organised crime.
“An increasingly complex and growing threat landscape combined with the sheer volume of data available online make it extremely difficult for intelligence personnel to collect, filter, and analyse data in a timely way,” he said.
“Our platform enables customers to fight the proliferation of threats, pierce through sophisticated online landscapes, and speed up investigations to protect global communities and organisations.
“Since our founding in 2017, we have enabled government agencies and corporations to identify threats, reduce risks, and mitigate incidents across a diverse range of use cases — from divisive US politics influencing violent extremism and China’s influence in the South Pacific, through to crypto scams and money laundering.
“This Series A funding ensures we can continue building advanced capabilities to support our customers’ targeted objectives, and add headcount to service markets across the globe — particularly in Australia, the US, and the UK.”
Fivecast’s total funding has now reached around AU$34 million as it builds its product profile, meets a surge in demand in the US and the newly established UK office.
“We see open-source intelligence as a large and emerging sector driven by the explosion of publicly available content, now growing ever-larger via the newly accessible AI-generated multimedia content platforms,” said Ten Eleven Ventures managing partner Alex Doll.
“Governments, law enforcement, and other organisations need a faster and easier way to collect and analyse this open-source data.
“Fivecast's advanced collection methods and AI-supported analysis tools bypass current manual data analysis processes to meet this important need.
“Notably, this is our second investment in Australia, a country we know has tremendous entrepreneurial and technical talent.
“We will make additional investments in Australia in the years ahead and look forward to helping bridge the country’s incredible tech to other markets.”
