TerraEchos announced today that the company has closed on $1.55 million in series seed financing, led by Flywheel Ventures. The funding also included participation from strategic investors, including S&K Technologies, a Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribally-owned company, and GCS Research, a leader in geospatial IT solutions. The investment will be used to expand its software development team and business development presence for key US Government security customers.

“We are excited to partner with the TerraEchos team to extend their effectiveness for government customers while broadening their offering to meet growing security challenges for commercial customers.”

“The fastest-growing challenges to security worldwide are threats that target the intersection of cyber and physical infrastructure systems. TerraEchos’ proven ability to use big data analytics to detect, analyze and respond to these threats addresses this critical and urgent need,” said Trevor Loy, General Partner at Flywheel Ventures. “We are excited to partner with the TerraEchos team to extend their effectiveness for government customers while broadening their offering to meet growing security challenges for commercial customers.”

TerraEchos is focused on markets where customers face a critical need for quick detection and response to threats. Examples include the US defense and intelligence communities, energy smart grids, nuclear facilities, pipeline networks, and other cyber-physical infrastructure.

TerraEchos’ groundbreaking solution is Kairos™, a software system that leverages the IBM InfoSphere Streams platform with proprietary analytic code. Kairos is specifically designed to analyze big data — high volumes of structured and unstructured text, voice, video, sensor and other data — to detect threats and anomalies in real time as that data streams across networks. It is also fully scalable and interoperable.

“As the Founder of TerraEchos Inc., I am incredibly excited about closing this round of investment with Flywheel,” said Dr. Alex Philp, TerraEchos Chief Executive Officer & Chief Technical Officer. “This represents a significant milestone for TerraEchos and its various stakeholders, and I look forward to continued innovation and to expanding our commitment to our customers.”

Bill Hartman is joining the company as President and Chief Operating Officer. He previously led two successful venture-backed technology startups. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and a retired US Naval Reserve Captain, with a strong background working with the US Government and in high technology applications.

Prior to this investment, TerraEchos, Inc. received a sizeable State of Montana Big Sky Trust Fund grant to support work force expansion and has benefited from previous state and federal funding initiatives and programs.