The Round
Advanced Navigation raised $158 million Series C led by Airtree Ventures. The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation put in $50 million preferred equity. Quadrant Private Equity also participated.
Total funding to date: $250.7 million across seven deals. Previous backers include KKR, In-Q-Tel, and former PM Malcolm Turnbull (now Chairman).
FY2024 revenue: $21.85 million. EBITDA: negative $14.27 million. The company is spending to scale.
What They Sell
Inertial navigation systems for GPS-denied environments. Their tech lets autonomous vehicles, ships, and defence systems navigate when GPS is jammed or spoofed. Customers include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Rheinmetall, BAE Systems.
The market context: GPS jamming incidents up 67% in 2025. Spoofing attacks up 193%. A full GPS outage could cost the global economy $1 billion per day.
More than 1,000 vessels hit by GPS jamming near Iran last week. Eastern Europe and Middle East seeing similar interference.
The Sales Angle
Advanced Navigation hired Michelle Toscan as APAC Head in December 2025. Her job: drive sovereign positioning tech sales across the region. The company sells direct to defence primes and through partnerships.
CRO Christopher McNamara leads revenue. No public data on sales team size, but the company says headcount doubled in 2025. Export-focused: they manufacture in Sydney and ship worldwide.
The APAC hire signals a push into regional defence spending. Australia is prioritising sovereign tech capability. Advanced Navigation partnered with CSIRO and RMIT on photonics innovations, positioning for defence contracts.
What It Means
This is a capital-intensive, long-cycle business. Negative EBITDA on $22 million revenue means they are investing in R&D and manufacturing before profitability. Defence sales are sticky but slow: long procurement cycles, high compliance requirements.
For sales professionals: defence tech offers recurring revenue and enterprise ACV, but quota cycles do not match SaaS. If you are considering a role in this space, ask about sales cycle length (12-24 months is typical), government contract exposure, and how comp handles delayed closes.
The NRFC backing matters. Government-backed funding often comes with local manufacturing and hiring commitments. That usually means headcount growth, but watch for sovereign preference clauses that limit international expansion roles.