Ra’anana, Israel – September 24, 2019 – D-Fend Solutions, a leading counter-drone solution provider, announced today that it has secured $28M to further support its leading position in the counter-drone market. The round was led by Claridge Israel with meaningful participation by current shareholder Vertex Israel, which led D-Fend’s previous fundraising in Q3 2018.

D-Fend’s ground-breaking EnforceAir solution is an advanced, autonomous counter unmanned aircraft system (c-UAS) that automatically and passively detects, locates and identifies rogue drones, as well as mitigates drones’ risk by taking control over them and landing them safely at a pre-defined zone.

“D-Fend has established a market leading position, with significant achievements since its inception a few years ago, including securing some of the sector’s largest, most demanding customers,” said Zohar Halachmi, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of D-Fend. “This latest investment by Claridge Israel and Vertex serves as an additional, powerful vote of confidence in D-Fend’s strong assets and great potential going forward. We are happy to welcome Rami Hadar, Managing Director at Claridge Israel, to D-Fend’s Board of Directors.”

“With the proliferation of recreational and professional drone use cases, rogue drones are a serious, exponentially growing challenge today,” said Oded Tal, Claridge Israel’s Managing Partner. “D-Fend’s breakthrough technology and progress to date are a great fit with the qualities we target in our investments: technological strength, industry leadership and substantial, long term, sustainable, growth potential. We look forward to working with D-Fend’s co-founders Zohar, Assaf Monsa, Yaniv Benbenisti, and the rest of the talented D-Fend team, to assist in any way we can and to further expand the business globally.”

“From a safety perspective, drones pose a potential risk for many urban environments including airports, government offices, strategic facilities, military bases, and more. We continue to be impressed by D-Fend’s unique team, their vision and the ability to address this critical issue,” said Yoram Oron, Founder and General Partner at Vertex Ventures Israel. “The company has built one of the most trusted products in the anti-drone space, providing a holistic solution and has received a lot of attention from the market from the very beginning of its development,” he said.

About D-Fend Solutions
Founded in 2017, D-Fend Solutions is the leading provider of counter-drone solutions in the most challenging scenarios. For further information, visit www.d-fendsolutions.com

About Claridge IL
Claridge IL is an investment firm focused on growth investments in innovative companies with a technological advantage. The firm was initiated through a partnership between Claridge Inc., the Stephen R. Bronfman Family Office, one of Canada’s most reputable family offices and private equity investors, and la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a global institutional private equity, infrastructure and real estate investor, with net assets of over CAD$300 Billion (as at June 30th, 2019). Claridge Israel’s portfolio companies include Algosec, Cyberbit, Infinidat and Gigaspaces. Please see www.claridgeil.com.

About Vertex Ventures Israel
With over $1B in AUM, Vertex Ventures Israel is a leading Israeli venture capital firm. Established in 1997, Vertex has invested in more than 130 companies across 6 funds and already exited from 43 companies. The Fund is an early investor in 3 of the top 10 largest VC stories out of Israel in the last decade: Waze (Acquired by Google for $1.3B), CyberArk (IPO, $4B+) and SolarEdge (IPO, $4B+). Learn more here.
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