The Federal Government's $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) is on a roll with its third investment in the space of 10 days, pumping $22.5 million into Canberra-based hyperscale cloud computing provider Vault Cloud.
The news takes the fund's committed investments to date to more than $100 million, following yesterday's $25 million investment into space telco Myriota, and a $13 million investment into diamond quantum technology company Quantum Brilliance on 10 December.
Just last month the NRFC announced its first investment of $40 million in Russell Mineral Equipment (RME), an original equipment manufacturer of minerals grinding mill relining technologies, as part of a broader $100 million investment partnership with Resource Capital Funds (RCF).
Vault, which has offices in Canberra and Sydney, plans to use the liquidity injection to expand its existing offerings such as SECRET Cloud, as well as develop and deploy new services, including AUKUS cloud capability.
"The NRFC’s investment in Vault will help to boost Australia’s sovereign cloud capabilities," says Vault CEO and founder Rupert Taylor-Price.
"Vault is proud to provide the secure infrastructure that supports the nation’s defence and industrial goals.
"With the NRFC’s support, we are poised to scale our capability and help meet Australia’s strategic national security demands, whilst at the same time contributing to the nation’s economic growth."
Vault was founded in 2012 as a cloud computing infrastructure company that integrates multiple layers of advanced security measures to protect data classified by the government and defence sector as protected, secret and top secret.
Vault’s security infrastructure includes cutting-edge encryption technologies, robust access control mechanisms, sophisticated threat detection and rapid response protocols.
"Ensuring the security of classified information is an important consideration for Australian governments in today’s contested world. Vault’s services store classified government and defence data locally in Australia and protect it with state-of-the-art security technologies and protocols," says NRFC chair Martijn Wilder.
Vault was the first cloud services provider to obtain certification from the Australian Signals Directorate for classified workloads, which allows its services to be used to host government and defence data classified at highly classified levels.
“As the first investment in the NRFC’s Defence Capability priority area, Vault is an excellent example of the ways in which the NRFC can invest to protect Australia’s national interests,” adds Wilder.
"The NRFC is pleased to make this investment in an innovative Australian company offering critical cloud computing services to the Australian government and defence sectors," says NRFC chief investment officer Dr Mary Manning.
"The NRFC’s $22.5 million investment will provide Vault with the capital it needs to expand its business and grow its core capabilities," says Manning.
The NRFC’s investment is part of Vault’s Series B funding round, with additional capital to come from private Australian investors. Business News Australia has sought further information from the company regarding other round participants.
Vault also completed a Series A round for an undisclosed sum in 2017. Documents lodged with the corporate regulator show $9.25 million was paid for preference shares in the company, with leading investors including Certane Corporate Trust and MA Asset Management.
Help us deliver quality journalism to you.
As a free and independent news site providing daily updates
during a period of unprecedented challenges for businesses everywhere
we call on your support