The private equity firm Highlander Partners on Monday said it has acquired Liteye Systems, a provider of counter-drone solutions for defense and security applications.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition is the first since Highlander earlier this year established its High Point Aerotechnologies holding company to target deals in the counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) market.
“The Liteye executive team is thrilled to join forces with Highlander to continue the growth of our multi-mission C-UAS platforms, built around protecting lives and critical infrastructure,” Kenneth Guyer and Tom Scott, co-founders of Liteye, said in a statement. “We feel that the need for advanced C-UAS is more pressing than ever, and we believe that High Point and the broader Highlander team bring the necessary government and military relationships, industry experience, and long-term financial approach to support us in driving Liteye and the C-UAS industry forward.”
High Point is led by Jim Gavrilis, a retired Army officer, who has worked at DRS Technologies, Wintech Arrowmaker, a small defense contractor, and as an adviser to the Center for Naval Analyses and the Johns Hopkins Advanced Research Laboratory.
Liteye, based near Denver, integrates with other C-UAS solutions and also provides its own integrated sensor solutions to detect, track, classify and defeat potential UAS threats. The company’s SHIELD system was included as part of a C-UAS solution integrated by Science Applications International Corp. [SAIC] that was recommended in September by the Joint Counter-small UAS Office to provide C-UAS as a service to the U.S. military services and combatant commands to help secure installations.
Demand for solutions to counter small drones has been growing worldwide to protect military forces and critical infrastructures. The use of successful use of small drones by Ukrainian and Russian forces in Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine to target and attack opposing troops and infrastructure has further highlighted the need to defend against these threats.
Ben Slater, a partner at Highlander, said that “We anticipate Liteye will be the first step in establishing a larger platform and intend to pursue additional M&A (mergers and acquisitions) this the space.”
Liteye’s financial adviser on the deal was the Forbes M+A Group.