Allied Minds leads two rounds with $7.5m

US-based commercialisation firm Allied Minds led two funding rounds on Monday, backing Orbital Sidekick, a US-based company working on imaging and analytics technology, and TableUp, a US-based restaurant software developer.

Orbital Sidekick received $3.5m from Allied Minds, which invested alongside VC firm 11.2 Capital. The company is working on aerial and space-based hyperspectral imaging and analytics technology, initially aimed at the oil and gas sector.

The company was co-founded by Daniel Katz, who left his position as senior propulsion engineer at spacecraft and communications systems developer SSL in 2016 to launch Orbital Sidekick with Tushar Prabhakar, previously a senior R&D (propulsion) engineer at SSL.

Katz was studying towards a master’s degree in aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Purdue University from 2014 to 2018.

Orbital Sidekick will put the cash towards a demonstration of its technology from the International Space Station, the development of additional platform and customer acquisition.

Orbital Sidekick is set to benefit from Allied Minds’ market expertise gained through two other portfolio companies – Hawkeye 360, a radio frequency mapping technology spinout from Virginia Tech that secured $11m in a series A round in 2016, and satellite communications network provider BridgeSat, which raised a $6m series A in May 2017.

TableUp has meanwhile obtained $4m in series A capital. The company has developed an end-to-end platform for restaurants that enables supply chain, inventory and operations management.

The platform is integrated with existing point-of-sale systems. On the customer side, it allows for loyalty schemes, online food ordering and notifications about expected waiting times.

The cash will help TableUp to increase its revenue and attract additional clients.

Jill Smith, CEO of Allied Minds, said: “TableUp is our first investment into a two-sided platform that targets supply chain and operational improvements through analytics derived from real-time data generated at the end-user and location level.

“We see the potential for rapid scaling up of the platform and associated revenue growth. With the exponential growth in connectivity and internet of things, we see opportunities in such smart vertical market applications that deliver supply chain and / or operating performance improvement.”