Richard Tame

CFO confidence took a 21-point hit this quarter—but finance leaders aren’t standing still. Despite tariffs, labor concerns and market uncertainty, 78% still expect profit growth. How? By doubling down on tech, rethinking costs and optimizing supply chains. In uncertain times, those focusing on long-term results while managing short-term challenges will come out ahead. How is your company adapting? Download our Q1 2025 CFO survey report for actionable insights and strategies. https://gt-us.co/3DUpDzq #FinanceLeaders #CFO #DigitalTransformation #TechInvestment #BusinessGrowth

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Congratulations to Space VC portfolio company Neros Technologies for announcing their $35M Series A today! This morning in front of an audience of 800 United States Department of Defense decision makers and industry leaders, Olaf Hichwa & Soren Monroe-Anderson shared the details of their new financing round from Vy Capital, Interlagos & Sequoia Capital. Re-industrializing the U.S. Defense Industrial Base starts with manufacturing all drone components in the United States. We unfortunately can no longer rely on critical drone components from companies and countries that are foreign adversaries. In recent months, the Neros Archer was the first FPV drone added to the BlueUAS, certifying that all Neros drones are 100% free of Chinese critical components & easy for the U.S. DoD to buy and operate. Last Fall, European allies gathered 200 of the world's best drone companies and poised a challenge: design a drone that satisfies all mission requirements, is ultra low-cost and thousands can be built monthly. The Neros Technologies team won the challenge, and in partnership with the International Drone Capability Coalition, another 6,000 Neros Archers are headed to Ukraine to help support European defense. Achieving these ambitious goals requires world-class talent, and Neros is rapidly expanding its team with engineers and operational experts across autonomy, robotics, hardware design, manufacturing processes, and software engineering. If you're interested, please explore here: https://lnkd.in/gmCKHC63 https://lnkd.in/g83gUBab

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In today's environment, new tariff headlines Monday, new AI model Tuesday, rate volatility Wednesday, the CFO's job isn't to predict the noise. It's to be structurally ready to act before the decision is forced on you. This piece from CFO Leadership captures my approach. The framing I keep coming back to: scenario planning isn't about knowing the future, it's about reducing your reaction time when it changes. Worth a read if you want another perspective for when the variables keep shifting.

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Hughes has acquired Anderson Connectivity, a leader in aerospace design, engineering, and manufacturing based in Melbourne, Florida.  This strategic acquisition positions us for accelerated growth in the global aviation, space, and defense markets, while also providing a physical presence on the Space Coast to serve as a hub for solution innovation and rapid prototyping.  https://lnkd.in/e75R_wUk #aviation #IFEC #innovation

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Proud to share that Articul8 is partnering with iBase-t to bring autonomous, domain-specific GenAI to one of the most demanding environments in the world: aerospace and defense manufacturing. This collaboration is about more than integration -- it’s about reshaping how critical industrial decisions get made. Together, we're enabling: • AI-native workflows for complex manufacturing and MRO • Expert-level reasoning across fragmented, unstructured data • Real-time decision support -- without replicating or moving data This is exactly why we built Articul8: to deliver enterprise-scale GenAI that doesn’t just generate content -- it understands context, adapts, and drives action. Grateful to Naveen Poonian, Sung Kim and the entire iBase-t team for the partnership -- and to the broader Articul8 team for pushing through boundaries to put AI into action in regulated, high-impact industries. Stay tuned for more to come shortly! #GenAI #AerospaceAndDefense #ManufacturingInnovation #EnterpriseAI #Articul8AI #Leadership #AIForIndustry

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Seraphim Space Index data for Q1 2025 featured in Reuters this morning 🚀 The SpaceTech sector kicked 2025 off with a steady flow of investment, in line with the quarterly average seen in 2024. Total funding over the trailing twelve months (TTM) reached $8.1bn - reflecting a 12% y-o-y increase from $7.2bn in the TTM to Q1 2024. However, U.S. federal budget cuts have started to have some early impact on space startups after funding for such companies dropped 12.5% in the first quarter, according to investment firm Seraphim Space. "Within certain government departments, uncertainty is causing delays as they assess which contracts to move forward with," Seraphim Space investment analyst Lucas Bishop said. Read the full article here 👇 https://lnkd.in/e4TqZxaa

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PE-backed CFOs mistakenly treat nailing their yearly budget as their north star. But for sponsors, the real priority is equity value: spending the (right kind of) money to make more money at eventual exit. ​ See how CFOs can take advantage of tariff-related deal delays and elongated hold periods to drive equity value for exit down the road: https://lnkd.in/eZFw_uPP

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Recently, Axant Corporate Advisory worked with two essentially pre-revenue technology companies to help them complete over-subscribed capital raises. In what is considered a tough market, how did they do it? 1. Market Fit They both spent a lot of time with potential customers, showing a large market and great interest from decision makers. 2. Right People They both had a yin-and-yang: a founder/CEO who could give the story of their passion for the field and a CTO and technology team who could deliver on their ambitions. 3. Explain the Technology and Market to Investors Axant led the investor deck and data room. We translated 'technology speak' into 'finance speak', and made sure the data room answered the technology, market need and governance questions of the investors. By working as a team, Axant and the companies were able to more than meet their needs for funding, setting them up for strong future growth. We look forward to helping you with translating 'technology' into 'finance'.

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An important discussion in venture capital these days is the industry's shift towards consensus investing and its fusion with politics and government at scale. We've been thinking / writing about those shifts for years and now the discussion is heating up. In my essay below (link in first comment) I discuss how consensus capital and the “venture industrial complex” funnel money toward incremental sameness—and why heresy still matters. Some core themes are: • Convergence across culture, tech, and policy reduces variance and outliers. • Big Venture coordinates capital, regulation, and narratives; small funds must adapt. • Alpha hides in scarcity bottlenecks (e.g. trust, provenance, energy), unregulated domains, and ideas that spark controversy / disagreement A shout out to my team members Jonatan H. Luther-Bergquist and Alex Patow and Bob Shapiro for the discussions at our offsite this year; Also Cem Sertoglu who asked the right questions at our AGM. Thanks to our colleagues Mike Maples, Jr, Lawrence Lundy-Bryan , Sinéad O'Sullivan and David Peterson for your recent contributions to the discussion, I quoted all of you (even if I disagree with some of your conclusions :).

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I’m excited to welcome Infinite Orbits to our portfolio - the next generation of in-orbit servicing to protect and sustain critical space infrastructure. When I met Adel Haddoud, Akshay Gulati, and Manos Koumandakis in Toulouse, it was immediately clear they had created something special: a truly global team of 20+ nationalities, where young engineers collaborate with seasoned veterans from Airbus, Thales and other space leaders to push the boundaries of in-orbit servicing. The company has just closed a €40M Series A, bringing together European investors: 🇫🇷 Wind Capital, 🇩🇪 Matterwave Ventures, 🇵🇱 Balnord with support from the EIC - European Innovation Council Fund and existing investors IRDI Capital Investissement and Newfund. A strong vote of confidence in this exceptional team. This round will accelerate the deployment of Infinite Orbits autonomous GEO-servicing fleet and support their expansion across Europe. Reinforcing Europe’s space sovereignty and strengthening resilience in orbit, backed by a €150M order book and a €50M contract with the French Ministry of Defence. We’re proud to back Infinite Orbits founders and excited to support them as they build Europe’s next leader in in-orbit servicing. More about the company in the video from my colleague Wojciech that led the round below.

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Excited to share that Reditus Space | YC W25 is setting a new standard for speed and agility in aerospace with the help of Onshape Government! They are preparing for their first full orbital mission with their reusable spacecraft, ENOS Mk1, scheduled for launch this July. Initially part of our Onshape by PTC Startup Program, the Reditus team moved from concept to launch-ready hardware with exceptional speed. Now with Onshape Government, they're meeting ITAR and EAR requirements without slowing down. Keep your eyes out for this launch! https://lnkd.in/eVf-a-9M #AerospaceInnovation, #CloudNative, #OnshapeGovernment #Onshape

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