WASHINGTON–Covington is representing Shield AI on government contracts and other regulatory matters for its acquisition of Aechelon Technology Inc.
In announcing the transaction, Shield AI simultaneously announced it is raising $1.5 billion in Series G funding at a $12.7 billion post-money valuation and $500 million in fixed-return preferred equity financing. The Series G is led by Advent International and co-led by the Strategic Investment Group of JPMorganChase’s Security and Resiliency Initiative. Funds managed by Blackstone are providing the preferred equity financing.
Shield AI is a venture-backed international deep-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software and V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft.
Aechelon Technology, a Sagewind Capital portfolio company, is a defense software company known for its high-fidelity simulation and synthetic reality environments. Aechelon’s technology is used by the U.S. military and allies to train pilots and test advanced aircraft and autonomous systems before live flight, and supports a range of critical national security platforms, including the Pentagon’s Joint Simulation Environment.
The Covington team is led by Scott Freling. Other team members include Ryan Burnette, Akash Shah, and Sela Carrington (government contracts); Heather Finstuen and Jacob Crump (national security); and Steve Bartenstein, Seth Atkisson, and Fiza Khan (trade controls).
The Aechelon acquisition is expected to close after customary regulatory approvals.
Back
