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Gecko Robotics, which creates robots to assess the safety and condition of critical infrastructure, has raised an additional $100 million in a Series C extension.

The new cash infusion was led by some big names — the US Innovative Technology Fund and Founders Fund, both of which will be taking board seats.

The Pittsburgh-based robotics startup announced a $73 million Series C in March 2022.

The new round comes a month after the startup landed a contract with the U.S. Navy to use its robots to assess damage as it builds submarines.

Founded in 2013, the company has raised $222 million to date, per Crunchbase data.

Defense tech on a role

The round is the latest big round to go to a defense tech startup as VCs start to seemingly warm to the industry. Defense tech historically has not drawn venture capital for a variety of reasons, including moral and ethical concerns.

However, just last week rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major said it has added another $38 million to its previously reported $100 million Series D — bringing its total Series D and D-1 funding to $138 million.

In October, defense and aerospace startup Shield AI raised a massive $200 million Series F at a $2.7 billion valuation.

Despite the recent uptick, defense tech numbers are still down from last year, per Crunchbase data. Last year, U.S.-based defense tech startups saw just less than $2.2 billion invested. This year, such startups have seen less than $700 million total.

However, if recent trends continue, 2024 could be a big year for the sector.

Ex-Goldman analyst on trial denies knowingly possessing inside information

Mohammed Zina and his brother are accused of insider trading and fraud by the UK’s FCA

A former Goldman Sachs analyst accused of insider trading with his brother, an ex-Clifford Chance lawyer, claims that he neither knew nor believed that he was in possession of inside information, according to his defence at a London trial.

Mohammed Zina “was not aware that he was on any insider list or that he was an insider at all” when he was working for the London office of the elite Wall Street bank, Brendan Kelly KC told the jury at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday.

Zina, 35, and his brother Suhail Zina, 36, are on trial accused of insider dealing in six stocks between July 2016 and December 2017, and three counts of fraud in relation to loans they obtained from Tesco Bank.

The alleged insider trading in question carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, while fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The jury was told that Mohammed Zina was never made aware he was on an insider list during his time at Goldman. He formerly worked for the bank’s London conflict resolution group.

In a case brought by the UK’s financial watchdog, it is alleged that Mohammed Zina used three bank accounts for trading based on inside information. One of the accounts was opened in his brother Suhail’s name, and the other two in the name of their sister, Shenaz Chunara.

Peter Carter KC, acting for the Financial Conduct Authority, has already told the jury that the brothers made profits in the region of £140,000 from their trading in stocks including semiconductor designer Arm.

Suhail Zina — who was a trainee solicitor at Clifford Chance, the “magic circle” law firm, before moving into its property finance department after qualification — denies assisting his brother to trade in the ways alleged by the prosecution. 

His defence barrister, Allison Clare KC, told the jury he was not aware that his brother had access to alleged inside information as part of his role at Goldman. The jury heard that he denies ever being involved in, or assisting in, any fraud regarding the Tesco loan.

The jury on Wednesday was shown screenshots of email correspondence between Mohammed Zina and Goldman bankers, which included information on each of the stocks in question, before the trades were made.

Fergal O’Driscoll, head of Emea conflicts and reputational risk at Goldman, worked alongside Mohammed Zina during his time at the Wall Street bank and gave evidence on Tuesday. O’Driscoll told the court that members of their team had access to large quantities of confidential, potentially price-sensitive information.

The trial, which is expected to last three months, continues.

Non-essential staff made up the bulk of property holding company’s staff, court filing shows

The administrator for the company at the centre of René Benko’s property empire has sacked the party planners, receptionists, hunters and private jet crew that together made up most of its staff, a court application in Vienna shows.

Signa Holding, which sat atop a property portfolio that included Selfridges in London, KaDeWe in Berlin and the Chrysler Building in New York, filed for insolvency last week, leaving creditors trying to unpick a web of companies, assets and debt.

On Tuesday, the independent administrator tasked with helping steer the company through insolvency said he was cutting off all “non-essential” business activities in an effort to preserve cash, affecting about three dozen employees, out of 43 in total.

“The closure of all non-essential parts of the business includes, in particular, hunting, flight, security and event management personnel for representation and business initiation tasks,” the court filing said.

Signa Holding declined to comment. 

Although Signa Holding only employed 43 people, it was the management company responsible for overseeing the finances of a group with €27bn in assets and an estimated €13bn in debt. Signa Holding’s liabilities doubled over the last year, to €5bn, the FT reported on Monday, as Benko sought to stave off financial collapse.

But two people familiar with the insolvency proceedings claimed that Signa Holding had been spending “millions of euros” annually on travel arrangements for Benko, 46, and lavish entertainments to burnish the company’s reputation.

Benko gave up his formal management positions in Signa after an Austrian court found him guilty of bribery in 2013. But he remained in control as its biggest shareholder via his family foundations.

Signa has both a helicopter and a corporate jet at its founder’s disposal.

Flight records show Signa’s jet was used for trips to Africa, Ibiza, and Brescia in northern Italy over the past year. Brescia is close to the Lake Garda villa that Signa Holding reportedly rents at a cost of €20,000 a month from a Liechtenstein trust.

Such trips and social events were an essential part of Signa’s business model, company insiders said, pointing to Benko’s huge success in winning some of the most famous family offices and entrepreneurs in Europe — including the Rausings and Peugeots — as co-shareholders.

Potential Signa investors and lenders were often wooed at Signa Holding’s headquarters in Innsbruck with a range of traditional Tyrolean pursuits, such as alpine sports and hunting, with no expenses spared, said one former Signa employee.

Some would be invited to stay with Benko at his chalet in the mountains nearby, or else at the Chalet N luxury hotel Signa owned in Lech, one of the most expensive ski resorts in the Alps.

Benko has long been known for his networking. His annual Törggelen — a traditional Tyrolean harvest feast — became a fixture on the Vienna social scene before the pandemic, with most of the country’s leading politicians attending after Benko began hosting it with increasing extravagance at the Signa-owned Park Hyatt.

Britain’s largest water utility faces scrutiny from parliamentarians and the regulator

Thames Water is facing fresh scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators over the state of its finances.

Ofwat, the watchdog, on Tuesday said it was investigating a £37.5mn dividend that Britain’s biggest water company paid in October. MPs separately said they would haul Thames Water’s bosses to a hearing next week to “seek clarification” over the nature of £500mn injected by the utility’s shareholders.

Britain’s largest privatised water utility has a byzantine corporate structure with multiple layers, only one of which is regulated by Ofwat. Announcing half-year results on Tuesday, Thames Water said it had paid a £37.5mn dividend from the regulated company that ultimately reached its parent entity.

Ofwat said: “Following notification that Thames Water has paid a dividend to shareholders, Ofwat is investigating whether this payment meets its licence requirements.”

The probe follows the introduction of licence conditions in May that requires companies to consider requirements to look after customers and the environment before paying dividends, and ensure “financial resilience over the long term”. If Thames Water is found to have breached rules it could face a fine equivalent to 10 per cent of turnover.

Thames Water insists no external dividends were paid, and will not be paid until 2030.

Concerns have risen over the financial stability of Thames Water, which provides water and sewerage services to about a quarter of the population in England. The company has faced larger financing costs on its £14.7bn debt pile, as well as bigger labour and energy bills. Meanwhile, it also faces an outcry over sewage pollution.

Fears for the company’s future deepened last week when the Financial Times revealed Thames Water had presented a £515mn shareholder loan to its unregulated parent group, charging 8 per cent interest, as fresh equity. The parent, Kemble Water, then cascaded £500mn of this borrowed money down the chain of holding companies that own Thames Water into the regulated utility as equity.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on Tuesday said it has demanded Thames Water bosses return so MPs can examine whether the company misled parliament when it told the committee in July that shareholders had provided £500mn of equity.

The parliamentary committee will also scrutinise the future financial viability of Thames Water. Ofwat has also been told to attend so that MPs can investigate “the rigour of its regulatory oversight”, the cross-party committee of MPs said.

Thames Water insisted the £500mn came into the “ringfenced entity” as equity and “there is no obligation to repay this money”. It says it has total liquidity of £3.5bn at the end of September, down from £4bn in March.

Nick Hood, a corporate restructuring adviser at Opus Business Advisory Group, said the £515mn to Kemble was “categorically a loan and is shown as such in the accounts”.

“The point is that the vulnerability of Thames Water as the actual supplier to consumers depends on the stability of the whole group,” he said.

The investigations come as first-half results on Tuesday underscored the company’s financial and operational fragility. Pre-tax profits fell 54 per cent to £246mn in the six months to September 30 while revenues climbed 12 per cent to £1.2bn. Pollution incidents and customer complaints had increased and the company admitted its was struggling with “frequent failures in our ageing infrastructure”.

Thames Water had previously said investors — including private equity, sovereign wealth and pension funds — agreed to inject £750mn by 2025 subject to conditions to stabilise the finances and deliver infrastructure improvements.

But Alastair Cochran, finance director and interim co-chief executive, on Tuesday said the £750mn infusion was still to be confirmed, despite the submission of the company’s business plan to regulator Ofwat in October.

“Investors are looking for some comfort from Ofwat that it will support that business plan,” he said. “They will take a pragmatic view depending on the feedback they get.”

The company has asked Ofwat for a 40 per cent increase in customer bills by 2030 to underpin the £750mn investment.

Shareholders are waiting to hear about the bill increases and have asked for restrictions on regulatory fines for missing pollution and other performance targets. In addition to the £750mn, Thames Water has asked for a further £2.5bn by 2030, which would be the largest equity injection into any water company since privatisation 34 years ago.

Auditors PwC has warned there is “material uncertainty” as to whether Thames Water’s parent company, Kemble Water Finance Limited, can continue as a going concern as it is yet to agree a refinancing deal on loans due in April.

Cochran insisted on Tuesday that Kemble was a “separate company”.

“Our job is to worry about Thames Water but clearly we care about our shareholders,” he said.

Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, described the company as a “slow-moving car crash”.

He added: “The board must resign with immediate effect and must be held accountable for financial and regulatory cover-ups as well as the destruction of local environments.”