Labrys

💪

Compliance can be a catalyst, not a constraint — when legal is part of the innovation team. At Labrys Technologies, our General Counsel Heather Panton (with over 15 years of National Security experience), is part of the team from day one, helping us build products that are stronger, more trusted, and ready for scale. Here 👇🏻 our GC Heather chats to Telescope about how compliance drives better innovation. #ComplianceByDesign

We are proud to share that Labrys Technologies has been nominated for Tech Business of the Year at the Heropreneurs Awards 2025. This recognition means a lot to us and our whole team — it reflects our commitment to the values we hold as a business connected to the military community. Want to find out more about the awards and why they matter? Check out the Heropreneurs Awards page (in comments). #HeropreneursAwards

“Being a great defence tech that’s enhancing European sovereignty does not only mean you have to make weapons." Companies like Helsing clearly play a crucial role in enhancing Europe's security, but we also need technology that takes on logistics and operations to modernise a sector with a famously complex stack. That's why we've also invested in the likes of Labrys, which is building secure workforce management to help organisations like militaries, human rights groups and newsrooms verify, support, and pay their globally dispersed teams. While some of the issues tech can solve for defence might seem 'mundane', they're mission-critical. Sten Tamkivi talks to Sifted about how these behind-the-scenes solutions will be vital to European resilience: https://lnkd.in/ghFfUrH2

I traveled to Estonia last month, where I had a fascinating conversation with Sten Tamkivi about the role of technology in securing the future sovereignty of this tiny country, and that of Europe. Estonians Tamkivi and Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus teamed up with other founders and chief executives around Europe and formed Plural to make early-stage investments in ambitious startups in areas such as healthcare, energy and defense. They hope some of these companies will have a “GDP level” impact on Europe. “Russia has publicly, clearly through their leader declared that it’s at war against the West,” Tamkivi said during a conversation in the medieval Old Town of Tallinn. “I don’t know why we don’t admit that.” Tamkivi views defense as an all-of-society effort that includes civilian and military networks working in tandem. “What happens in the 99% of the time outside active conflict? Technologies that coordinate civilian and military networks, manage supply chains during crises, and enhance government communication become vital,” Tamkivi said. In June, Tamkivi led a $20 million investment in London-based Labrys, which makes a secure team-management and payments platform called Axiom. The traditional model of two opposing uniformed forces is outdated, and military leaders must grapple with integrating civilians with mobile phones and connectivity into their operations, co-founder and CEO August Lersten said. Two years ago, when the Kakhovka Dam was breached and flooded along the region of the lower Dnipro River, Labrys was used to onboard and coordinate Ukrainian and international civilians who were already on the ground, according to Lersten. “Yes, Estonia is small, but they’re technically enabled, and the smallness of that state doesn’t change the reach of the state at all,” Lersten said. At the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Tamkivi and his family hosted a family from Mariupol, who arrived in Estonia after driving through Russia in a Subaru with bullet holes. “I gave them a house on a farm where my great grandfather was taken and shot by the Soviets when they came in,” Tamkivi said. “I think the sense of urgency comes from the fact that every single family, even in my generation, knows what Russian occupation looks like. There’s no illusion what it would look like, would that happen again.” 'Tänan teid' to those who shared perspectives on Estonia: Ajay Agrawal of Creative Destruction Lab and University of Toronto - Rotman School of Management, Andrew Thompson of Spring Ridge Ventures and Ivo Lille of the Vabamu and KGB Cells museums in Tallinn. https://vabamu.ee/en/ WSJ Leadership Institute The Wall Street Journal Vinny Steves Laura Yanyi Ma Tanya Dua

🫡

Absolutely delighted to partner with the incredible team at Labrys - this is a great example of how Europe is raising its game in a world where we really need to. I’m excited to see what August L. and the team build from here and thrilled to be working with our friends Plural again. 🚀

As an Estonian, coming from a country on NATO’s Eastern flank, you naturally think a lot about defence and national resilience. And, as an Estonian investor, it follows that you see a lot of defence tech companies. Today we’re making a $20m Series A investment into Labrys. Here’s why Plural is backing the startup that’s building the operating system to power the defense and security of the future. A lot of the investment going into defence tech is becoming crowded, around hundreds of companies building better drones or kinetic targeting. For a reason: smart hardware is important for deterrence and winning wars. Yet, that technology is used about 1% of the time, and sits idle for most of the day. (Luckily!) Labrys is a rare type of defence tech company building a product that is useful for that other 99% of the time: a software platform designed to coordinate global security teams, civilian and defence networks that have to be persistently engaged everywhere, and all the time, both in times of peace and in conflict. In today’s unstable world, militaries work in close and constant collaboration with humanitarian groups, as well as civilians who provide logistical support and real-time intelligence. Currently, this work is often coordinated via Whatsapp and Signal, and paid for in cash via unreliable distribution channels. This creates issues around logistical efficiency and trust, as it’s hard for leaders to verify who they’re dealing with, know where and when the videos or photos they’re sent have been taken, and to have faith that the people they’re working with will get paid properly. With decades of experience in the UK’s armed forces, Labry’s founders August L. and Luke W. have built a platform that solves these problems, combining biometric ID verification, media validation tech, and crypto rails for secure, instant payments via stablecoins. It’s already being used by mission critical teams all over the world, including in Ukraine, and the company has signed contracts with the UK Government and begun working with other NATO nations, while also delivering value in civilian applications for humanitarian work and media companies fighting misinformation. One of the main reasons Plural exists is to back genuine experts in their field like Gus and Luke, and give them the technical and operational support to scale and go to market — read more on why I’m excited to help take Labrys to the next level here: https://lnkd.in/dDsABnTv See The Times profile by Richard Tyler name on today’s news and the Labrys team here: https://lnkd.in/dTUSf9wW

Labrys Update: We are excited to announce our $20 million Series A round led by Plural and Sten Tamkivi, with participation from AlbionVC and Superangel, alongside our existing investors Project A, Expeditions Fund & MD One Ventures. This investment will be used to accelerate the development of Axiom - the platform that helps organisations verify, manage, and pay their global workforce and globally-dispersed teams. Our founding team has roots in British Defence, Cyber, and National Security and we are now working alongside world-class engineers to build the tools we wish we had. Just a few years on from founding, we emerged as a new UK challenger software prime in 2024 (securing multi-million pound revenues), and Axiom has also been used to solve tough workforce and team coordination problems in complex fields including logistics, risk, and humanitarian crisis response. We are tackling some of the hardest technical problems in this space, such as Command & Control AI-augmented planning, applied real-time strategy gaming interface design, compliant global digital payments, and resilient communications. And our technology has already been battle-tested in situations where failure is not an option. We spoke to Richard Tyler at The Times to talk about our mission and what this funding will mean for Labrys (Link in comments). If you’re an exceptional mission-driven engineer or veteran and want to be part of building the future of trust infrastructure, we’re hiring. #ProofOfWorkforce #DefenceTech