Hanwha Aerospace invests in Israeli startup with anti-jamming tech

South Korea's Hanwha Aerospace Co. has invested in an Israeli start-up possessing anti-jamming technology to prevent interference in global positioning service (GPS).

Jamming to neutralize GPS is a growing threat not only to the military but also the private sector like in the use of delivery drones, robots and autonomous driving, so Hanwha has preemptively secured technology and know-how to tackle this problem.

The company on Tuesday said it participated in Series A financing for infiniDome with Honeywell Ventures of the US and Nextgear Ventures of Israel. The startup attracted $9 million (12 billion won) under the investment method simple agreement for future equity (SAFE).

SAFE is a pre-sale form of investment in which the investment is paid in advance and shares are acquired later at a discounted price. This method is used to quickly snap up promising high-tech startups amid fierce competition for early investment.

Established in June 2016, infiniDome can produce low-power products of miniature size with better performance at half the price of competitors on the anti-jamming solution market.

Merging with Hanwha Aerospace and Hanwha Munitions on April 1, Hanwha Defense has self-developed anti-jamming technology to produce anti-jamming devices for tactical-class guided weapons and ground vehicles. With this investment, Hanwha Aerospace seeks to take the early lead on the global anti-jamming market, which is forecast to grow 13% every year to $12.7 billion by 2030, in cooperation with infiniDome.

"We will contribute to national security by preemptively securing advanced anti-jamming technology as well as safety technology for the emerging innovative markets for private drones, robots and self-driving vehicles," a Hanwha Aerospace source said.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com