NRF supports Liquid Instruments’ $70m funding round
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: The National Reconstruction Fund has invested $28.45 million in advanced testing and measurement equipment manufacturer Liquid Instruments as part of its $70 million Series C funding round.
The context: The raise was co-led by New York Stock Exchange-listed Keysight Technologies and also received backing from Breakthrough Victoria, Acorn Capital, Significant Capital Ventures and Tribeca.
The Australian National University spinout will use the funds to expand its Melbourne-based manufacturing facilities, expand its product offering and increase global sales. The company has 55 staff and expects to create an additional 20 product engineering roles.
Its flagship product range, called Moku, is a single digital device that can be configured to perform the tasks of up to 16 different analogue laboratory instruments.
Current customers include Nvidia, Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin, PsiQuantum, BYD and Intel, with more than 90% of Liquid Instrument’s revenue coming from international markets.
Liquid Instruments was founded by chief executive officer Daniel Shaddock and chief operating officer Danielle Wuchenich in 2014. Shaddock was involved in the research that led to the awarding of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for the observation of gravitational waves.
What they said: “The National Reconstruction Fund’s investment enables Liquid Instruments to consolidate its manufacturing in Australia while continuing to scale globally,” Shaddock said.
“Advanced manufacturing is a critical sovereign capability. It takes decades to build and can be lost almost overnight.”
NRF chief investment officer Mary Manning said: “NRFC funding will keep Liquid Instruments in Australia, and our cornerstone investment will crowd-in significant private capital from overseas while creating highly skilled jobs in Australia.”
Keysight Technologies vice president of Keysight Technologies said: “The industry is shifting toward software-first and AI-enabled architectures and Liquid Instruments extends this by using software and AI to directly shape hardware behavior, creating more adaptable instrumentation.”
The source: NRF media release
