Onebrief Secures $53M to Build the Future of Military Staffs

HONOLULU--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Onebrief, the leading software platform for military staff workflows and collaboration, today announced the closure of its Series B funding round, bringing the company’s total capital raised to $53 million.

The round was led by Human Capital, with participation from 9Yards Capital and Caffeinated Capital. Following a year of 4x revenue growth, this investment will be strategically deployed to expand the company’s engineering team and fuel product development.

Closing earlier this year, this latest raise was a strategic move from the company’s leadership. “We made the bulk of this raise in February as a hedge against a yearlong Continuing Resolution,” explains Grant Demaree, Chief Executive Officer at Onebrief, referencing the risk that Congress might fail to pass an FY24 defense appropriation. “While this risk did not materialize, it is important for every defense startup to hold enough cash to remain a reliable partner to global military forces during any budget situation. Today, with the support of our strong partners, we can put our focus on what’s important: elite engineering.”

Onebrief’s software is used across U.S. military headquarters worldwide to accelerate operational planning, provide faster command decisions, and help military staffs work efficiently. The company anticipates that more than half of the U.S. Combatant Commands will utilize its platform by the end of the current fiscal year.

Strategic Growth

In addition to product growth, this has enabled Onebrief to expand its team and bring in highly skilled leaders across engineering, information security, and sales. Now comprising 100+ employees worldwide, Onebrief’s team has grown 2.6x in the last year and 5.1x in the last two years.

David Wolf joined the team as Onebrief’s VP of Engineering. Most recently, Wolf served as Senior Director of Engineering at Opendoor, a Fortune 500 real estate technology company. In 2022, Opendoor acquired JetClosing, the tech startup that Wolf founded as CTO in 2016. Prior, Wolf served at Amazon, running the engineering team that built the Amazon Mobile app for iPhone and Android. In the 2000s, he built software and systems for early Internet companies.

Colten O’Malley joined the team as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Onebrief. Previously, O’Malley led as Vice President of Cybersecurity at Omni Federal. Prior, O’Malley built his decade-plus career within the U.S. Army, most recently serving as the Deputy Commander at the U.S. Army Command and Control Support Agency. He brings extensive expertise in managing cybersecurity initiatives and practices across critical environments.

Blake Lackey joined the team as Head of Sales at Onebrief. Lackey retired as a U.S. Army Colonel with over 25 years of service in Special Operations and Indo-Pacific focused commands, including U.S. Army Pacific and America’s I Corps. Lackey served and led Operational Planning Teams from the battalion to service component command level, multinational, and joint. After his military service, he supported operations and business development in scaling startup businesses in the biotech and Defense Tech space.

Focus Areas

Personnel aside, with this investment, Onebrief’s engineering team will advance three key areas: core customer experience, seamless data integration, and AI-accelerated workflows.

1. Onebrief will prioritize continuous improvements to the platform to ensure that all users benefit from a product that evolves to meet the unique needs of different users and commands.
2. Recognizing the critical need for secure and efficient data exchange, Onebrief is investing in its core capabilities. The company recently launched its API, allowing information and insights from within the platform to be combined with data from other military software tools.
3. The development of fully offline access for tactical units in austere environments is underway. The ability to plan and operate with minimal connectivity ensures synchronization with higher, adjacent, supported, and supporting units at all times.
4. Onebrief has integrated AI models into the platform to speed up military staff workflows. The additional funding will allow for continued development in this area.

“We’re using these funds for product engineering,” added Demaree. “With each technical investment, we ask three questions: how does this help the commander; how does this help the user; and how will this matter in the staff of the future.”