Bondi Partners’ national security-focused 1941 fund has invested in a new funding round of up to $20 million for defence and security specialist boat building company The Whiskey Project Group (TWPG).
The 1941 fund is believed to have invested $5 million with the opportunity of additional investment over time. Other investors in the round include existing institutional investors Ellerston Capital, Perennial Partners and OC Funds as well as a number of new sophisticated investors.
The new funding was sought to expand TWPG’s global reach and to boost its local manufacturing. The capital will enable TWPG to accelerate its expansion into the US and meet increasing demand for its watercraft from the US Armed Forces, and other governments in Central America, South America, Asia, and Europe.
The investment will also see the expansion of TWPG’s Australian manufacturing facility in Yamba on the north coast of NSW. This facility is currently supplying new Landing Craft Light vessels to the Royal Australian Navy, providing a faster and more capable craft for the Pacific Support Vessel ADV Reliant.
TWPG has become one of the largest suppliers of law enforcement and emergency services vessels in Australia and New Zealand, with increasing international demand with key Australian allies.
Bondi Partners Australia chief executive Anthony Lazzoppina said the firm was investing to back TWPG’s continuing expansion in the US and global markets.
Last year, small cap funds managed by Ellerston Capital, Perennial Partners and OC Funds Management contributed to a capital raising by TWPG following contract wins with the US federal government’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Under the around $US23.0 million (around A$35.0 million) contract, TWPG was to provide small, versatile, fit for purpose, tactical watercraft to the US Marine Corps (USMC), co-founder and chief executive Darren Schuback said. The boats to be supplied were the company’s nine-metre Whiskey Alpha and 11-metre Whiskey Bravo multi mission reconnaissance craft.
The establishment of Sydney-based TWPG in 2019 was led by Schuback, a former Australian Defence Force (ADF) officer who served with the Royal Australian Navy and ADF Special Operations.
The concept for TWPG was based on Schuback’s deep operational experience and the products of two long-established builders of specialist watercraft, New Zealand company Naiad and Yamba Welding and Engineering (YWE). The two businesses were acquired in 2020 and are now fully owned subsidiaries of TWPG.
Founded in the 1970s, Naiad is an Australian and New Zealand naval architecture company that designs rigid hull inflatable boats used for recreational and commercial purposes and by law enforcement agencies around the world. The company is contributing design capability to TWPG which is currently building all its craft at the Yamba facility.
YWE is an established builder of high-specification aluminium boats for commercial operators and for various federal and state government bodies for military, law enforcement, rescue and patrol roles.
The new funding will also partly be used to establish a production facility in the US.[DS1]
Advisory and investment firm Bondi Partners was founded in Washington DC in early 2020 by former Australian ambassador to the US Joe Hockey. Hockey recognised that despite deep trade and investment links between Australia and the US, Australian early-stage technology businesses struggled to gain traction in the US while US businesses looking to enter the Australian market – in many cases as parts of wider regional expansion strategies − often lacked local knowledge.
With the evolution of AUKUS – the security pact between Australia, the UK and the US – Bondi Partners recognised an opportunity for private investment in technologies that had dual defence and civil applications. Bondi Partners established the 1941 fund to invest in that space.
Image: A Whiskey Bravo multi-mission reconnaissance craft produced by The Whiskey Project Group.