CesiumAstro alleges in a newly filed lawsuit {that a} former government disclosed commerce secrets and techniques and confidential details about delicate tech, traders and prospects to a competing startup.
Austin-based Cesium develops active-phased array and software-defined radio programs for spacecraft, missiles and drones. Whereas phased-array antenna programs have been used on satellites for many years, Cesium has significantly superior and productized the tech over its seven years in operation. The startup has landed greater than $100 million in enterprise and authorities funding, which it has used to develop a set of merchandise for business and protection prospects.
The expertise is area of interest: Solely a handful of corporations work on the slicing fringe of space-based radio expertise, and Cesium little question pays shut consideration to any new entrant on this area. AnySignal, a startup that got here out of stealth final October however was formally integrated in 2022, definitely caught the corporate’s eye, not least as a result of it edged out Cesium in a gross sales bid to a serious buyer and by making an attempt to solicit the curiosity of certainly one of Cesium’s early traders — each details said within the lawsuit.
In accordance with the swimsuit, filed on March 25, these details are immediately associated to former VP of Product Erik Luther’s misappropriation of commerce secrets and techniques and confidential data on traders and prospects, which Cesium alleges he subsequently disclosed to AnySignal. Notably, Luther didn’t depart Cesium to work for AnySignal, as a substitute taking a task as head of promoting at an organization that operates in a special sector solely. However the swimsuit says that Luther maintained “personal connections” with AnySignal’s co-founders, having labored with AnySignal CEO John Malsbury beforehand at a special firm.
This resulted in AnySignal “recruiting and inducing Luther … to improperly disclose” the confidential and commerce secret data, the swimsuit says. AnySignal’s CEO and CesiumAstro didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for remark; a lawyer representing Luther referred TechCrunch to the March 29 authorized filings cited beneath.
Cesium is evident on its place within the lawsuit: It doesn’t imagine that AnySignal might have developed its complicated radio expertise on its timeline and with its current sources — “absent CesiumAstro’s technical diagrams and specifications (to which Luther had access).”
“With only a few employees and $5 million in investor funding, [AnySignal] would not even be in the same orbit as CesiumAstro, which has spent tens of millions of dollars working with (now) 170 employees for seven years to develop its technologies,” the swimsuit says. “But with Luther’s help, AnySignal has launched to directly compete with CesiumAstro in the specialized space for software-defined radios.”
Luther strongly denied all of the allegations in two separate paperwork filed with the court docket on March 29; relating to the declare that he labored in live performance with AnySignal, he says the allegation is “not only false…but invented out of whole cloth.” (The response additionally denies Cesium’s declare that it’s an “industry leader.”)
Cesium “does not cite any facts or evidence whatsoever linking Luther and any of AnySignal’s business efforts and the alleged evidence that [Cesium] does cite do not support [its] contentions,” Luther’s lawyer claims within the submitting. He goes on to say that Cesium takes a “Grand Canyon-sized leap from the paltry, easily explainable evidence it cites to the remarkable allegation that Luther has been secretly assisting AnySignal and feeding them [Cesium’s] trade secrets without citing any evidence whatsoever.”
El Segundo-based AnySignal was based in Could 2022 by Malsbury and COO Jeffrey Osborne, and emerged from stealth touting $5 million in seed funding final yr. The corporate is growing a software-defined radio platform; Cesium’s lawsuit names it as a “direct competitor.” In February, a month earlier than the swimsuit was filed, AnySignal introduced it had landed a partnership with personal area station developer Huge for a sophisticated communication system for Huge’s flagship station, Haven-1.
The swimsuit was filed in Western District of Texas underneath no. 1:24-cv-314.
