Pittsburgh Money Moves: Neya Systems landed part of a $14.8M US Army contract

Pittsburgh robotics companies get military contracts

In December, the US Army and the Defense Innovation Units announced their selections for which companies would help develop autonomous navigation kits for the Ground Expeditionary Autonomous Retrofit System, aka GEARS project. Among the three selected, two Pittsburgh-based companies made the cut for the $14.8 million contract: Neya Systems and Carnegie Robotics. (The third company selected for the contract was Robotic Research Autonomous Industries.)

Kurt Bruck, division manager of Neya Systems, told Technical.ly that his company’s leadership sees being awarded the contract out of 51 other possible contenders as a vote of confidence in its technological capabilities.

As a part of the collaboration, the Warrendale-based company will be developing an autonomous solution that turns military vehicles into “uncrewed,” or personless, vehicles. Bruck says this matters because the autonomous options can provide soldiers with more safety in the field.

“The enemy always wants to take out convoys as quickly as possible because they disrupt all the operations,” Bruck said. “So there’s been a huge push to make them autonomous, for two reasons: one, to get the soldier out of harm’s way, because it’s one of the most dangerous missions for a soldier to actually drive these trucks now. But also, to increase uptime. So the soldiers have to sleep, they have to eat and have to take breaks.”

Subtl Beauty raises $5.5 million

Subtl Beauty, a Pittsburgh-based makeup brand, secured a $5.5 million Series A. The 2017-founded company makes stackable, vegan, cruelty-free makeup products for users on the go. The round was led by Cult Capital, a New York-based equity firm, with contributions from local firms Innovation Works as well as Grouse Ridge Capital, both of which have invested in the company in the past.

The SEC filing for the raise went live on Nov. 22.

“This milestone isn’t just about capital, it’s a testament to our commitment to providing time-efficient makeup solutions for busy women,” CEO and founder Rachel Reid, an AlphaLab alum, wrote on her LinkedIn.

“We look at all categories of beauty, from skincare to cosmetics, haircare and personal care, and what we saw in particular in Rachel that was very different from what’s on the market is she’s really revolutionizing the convenience factor with a product that offers functionality and versatility that no one else is creating,” Sarah Woelfel, cofounder and partner at Cult Capital, told Beauty Independent. “And it caters to a specific audience that’s underserved in the beauty market, which is the time-strapped woman, whether that be a working professional, mom or even a makeup novice who wants easy-to-use products.”

Pitt professors score an NSF grant

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering and the University of Notre Dame teamed up to receive a four-year, $2 million award from the National Science Foundation Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. Their work will focus on sustainability in the semiconductor industry.

“Computer technology is as ubiquitous in modern society as electricity, but in recent years there has been growing concern to develop more sustainable computing that reduces the environmental impact of manufacturing and the production of e-waste, while improving performance and extending lifespans,” Peipei Zhou, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Swanson and lead investigator, in this Swanson post about the funding.

“Our particular focus is to take a specific integrated chip called a field-programmable gate array and ‘refresh’ it for secondary and tertiary deployments to amortize manufacturing investment,” Zhou said.

More Money Moves

• San Jose-based Lynx Software Technologies is ending the year with the acquisition of Pittsburgh cybersecurity provider Timesys Corporation.
• Crowdfunding loan platform maker Honeycomb Credit raised $8.8 million, according to an SEC filing. When reached by Technical.ly, cofounder George Cook declined to comment on the raise.
• Sportstech company Diamond Kinetics raised $900,000, according to an SEC filing.