Backed by Israeli defense tech fund, Tel Aviv smart monitoring startup secures $30m

Tel Aviv deep-tech startup Prisma Photonics, a developer of optical fiber sensing technology for monitoring critical infrastructure, has raised $30 million in fresh capital, led by Israeli defense tech fund Protego Ventures.

Founded in 2017 by electrical engineer Eran Inbar, the startup has built a fiber sensing technology platform to monitor infrastructure and detect and track threats like wildfires, ice, wind and physical damage across critical infrastructure such as power grids, oil and gas pipelines, secured compounds, long remote boundaries and military perimeters. The technology enables constant surveillance of critical infrastructure without installing any external sensors on wires or towers.

“Critical infrastructure everywhere is under strain — whether from security threats, extreme weather or the energy transition,” said Inbar, who also serves as CEO of Prisma Photonics. “Our AI capabilities allow us to translate raw optical fiber signals into actionable intelligence in real time.”

“That means our technology can protect a military installation one day, and optimize renewable energy integration the next,” Inbar added.

The sensor-free solution turns existing optical fibers into intelligent grid monitors of long-range infrastructure including pipelines that extend for hundreds or thousands of kilometers. The startup’s hyper-scan technology turns fiber optic cables already in place into a continuous smart sensing acoustic system.

The system is powered by an algorithmic engine, using a mixture of machine learning and mathematical algorithms, which classifies threats and detects unusual signals. The threats include extreme weather events, wildfires, a congested power grid, a wildfire along a high-voltage power line and physical damage.

Protego Ventures managing partner Lee Moser said that Prisma Photonics has “demonstrated exceptional innovation in transforming existing fiber infrastructure into powerful monitoring systems.”

“Their proven technology platform addresses critical needs across multiple infrastructure sectors, from physical security to grid resilience,” said Moser.

The financing round for Prisma Photonics was led by Protego Ventures, with the participation of strategic energy investors Adara Ventures and the investment arm of a leading unnamed Latin American transmission operator. Existing investors Insight Partners, Chione Switzerland, and Schneider Electric’s venture arm SE Ventures also joined the funding round. To date, the startup has raised about $80 million.

Prisma Photonics’s smart infrastructure monitoring platform has been deployed by  power utilities in the US, Europe, and Israel to identify threats like icing or wildfires on transmission assets in real time, the startup said.

Protego Ventures — founded in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught, during which the terror group disabled and broke through the IDF’s so-called “smart fence” along the Gaza border — is Israel’s first venture capital fund dedicated to backing the next generation of defense tech founders who seek to develop smart, advanced military technologies.