Labrys Secures £15m for Crisis Management Platform

Two British military veterans, August Lersten and Luke Wattam, have secured a $20 million (£15m) investment for their startup Labrys, with the investment led by Plural, a venture capital firm. Founded in 2020, Labrys aims to provide humanitarian organizations, defense forces, crisis response teams, and logistics providers with secure and reliable communication and team management tools. Their platform, Axiom, integrates HR and task management tools with encrypted communication and biometric identity checks for team verification. It includes features like geo-tagged tasks, audits, and a stablecoin disbursement system for rapid international payments, especially useful in regions with limited banking infrastructure. The platform addresses long-standing issues in humanitarian, aid, and military missions, such as task verification, trust, and payment difficulties. The investment was also supported by other investors, including AlbionVC, Superangel, Project A, MDOne, Expeditions Fund, and Marque Ventures. Plural partner Sten Tamkivi emphasized the significance of Labrys' focus on secure human coordination systems in high-risk environments, filling a gap in modern defense and resilience innovation.