The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation has announced a $22.5 million investment in secure data infrastructure provider Vault Cloud, bringing its total investments into Australian companies in the past month to $100 million.
The investment in Vault, announced by NRFC chair Martijn Wilder on Friday, is the first into the fund’s Defence Capability priority area, and will be used to develop and deploy new services including an AUKUS cloud capability, among other things.
The NRFC’s investment is part of Vault’s Series B funding round, with additional capital to come from private Australian investors.
Vault Cloud has been an under-the-radar success story as a supplier of secure and sovereign hyperscale cloud infrastructure to the government and defence, as well as other critical infrastructure sectors. The company competes in the secure cloud services market with global hyperscalers like Microsoft and AWS.
The company’s Australian cloud infrastructure provides best-in-class advanced security measures that protects government and defence data across Protected, Secret and Top Secret classifications.
Beyond the actual dollars, the direct investment by the NRFC as the government’s flagship industry development fund represents a huge boost for Vault as a signal of confidence in its ability to deliver secure cloud infrastructure.
The National Reconstruction Fund’s $22.5 million investment in Vault follows a $25 million investment in IoT satellite startup Myriota on Thursday, and the $13 million investment in quantum processor company Quantum Brilliance last week.
The NRFC’s first investment in mining and minerals processing innovator Russell Mineral Equipment was announced just one month ago.
The latest investment in Vault will be used to deliver additional security capabilities for its existing contracts, as well as to broaden its product base, including through artificial intelligence, deployed tactical cloud and the accelerated development of the company’s Secret cloud offering.
NRFC chief investment officer Dr Mary Manning said the fund was “pleased to make this investment in an innovative Australian company offering critical cloud computing services to the Australian government and defence,” giving the company the capital it needs to expand the business and grow its core capabilities.
Vault chief executive Rupert Taylor-Price welcomed the partnership, emphasising its significance for building on the company’s existing services.
“The NRFC’s investment in Vault will help to boost Australia’s sovereign cloud capabilities,” Mr Taylor-Price said. “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,” he said.
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