With the
collapse and bankruptcy filing by Adam Aircraft last month, venture capital investment in the aviation sector seems even more exotic than usual. By contrast, Naverus Inc. proudly stood up Wednesday and
confirmed that it has landed $10 million dollars in a Series C round led by Foundation Capital to support ongoing development of flightpath navigation tools.
Granted, the Naverus investment is a far cry from the $93 million June 2006
round in which DCM took a flier from its traditional Silicon Valley venture capital focus to lead a sixth round in Adam for manufacturing its first very light jet products, joined by investors Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc., W Capital Partners, D.E. Shaw & Co. LP and Acadia Woods Partners, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Hunt Growth Capital LP. Despite selling into a market of airlines and aircraft manufacturers, Naverus has a traditional venture capital business model of melding expertise in avionics, aircraft operations and procedure design to help airlines and navigation service providers find technology solutions to specific routes and scheduling challenges.
Naverus, which had previous backing from private equity backer JGE Capital, believes its technology can help airlines save fuel, reduce carbon emissions, cut miles flown and generally make air traffic systems more efficient.
- Clifford CarlsenSee Feb. 20 story from The Deal.comSee March 5 press release from NaverusSee August 2006 story from The Deal.comFor more see
Northwest Innovation and
John Cook's Venture Blog
Continue reading below
