Unlocking Earth Data: Why We Invested in LGND
The latest news from Ridgeline portfolio companies driving impact across critical infrastructure.
Unlocking Earth Data: Why We Invested in LGND
By Andrew McMahon, General Partner at Ridgeline
When we first sat down with the founders of LGND—Nat Manning, Dan Hammer, and Bruno Sanchez-Andrade Nuño—we weren't starting from scratch. I've known Nat and Dan for years from our time in federal government when they served as Presidential Innovation Fellows. This gave me firsthand exposure to their deep expertise and commitment to a mission.
All three co-founders bring impressive credentials in geospatial data. Dan and Bruno stand out as premier minds in Earth observation: Bruno previously served as Chief Scientist at Mapbox, one of the most significant mapping companies of the past 15 years, while Dan has built mission-critical infrastructure in geospatial analytics throughout his career, including work at NASA. Nat brings deep experience as Chief Data Officer at USAID and as co-founder of multiple startups, including Kettle, an AI-native reinsurance company.
What ultimately drew us to LGND was both team expertise coupled with their compelling vision.
They believe—and we agree—that geospatial and Earth observation data represent a key modality in generative AI. While we've seen tremendous advances in language and image models, Earth data remains uniquely complex and historically difficult to access, analyze, and act upon. LGND is building the orchestration layer to change that.
Ridgeline Founder Stories: Deep Patel of BlueShift is Scaling a New Model for Domestic Mineral Extraction
If you’ve ever held a smartphone, driven an electric vehicle, or relied on cloud services, you’ve relied on critical minerals—materials like nickel and rare earth elements that are foundational to modern industry and clean energy. Today, the vast majority of these minerals are processed overseas, primarily in China, using environmentally harmful methods and fragile supply chains. As demand surges and geopolitical pressures mount, the U.S. faces an urgent need to establish secure, sustainable, and scalable domestic sources.
That’s where BlueShift comes in. BlueShift is developing next-generation electrochemical technology to unlock critical minerals from unconventional sources such as industrial waste.
We sat down with co-founder and CEO Deep Patel to talk about the company’s origins, technology, and vision for transforming resource extraction in the age of climate and industrial resilience.
Portfolio News
Knox Systems is now available on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. Apps already running on AWS can now achieve full FedRAMP authorization in 90 days—without an agency sponsor, procurement delays, or re-architecture. With 15 active ATOs across agencies including DHS, Treasury, NIH, FEMA, and the U.S. Marines—and over a decade operating Adobe’s federal cloud—Knox is now making its AI-native compliance platform available to a broader market.
Smallstep is now the device identity provider for Jamf—the only company in the world that provides a complete management and security solution for Apple-first enterprises—delivering hardware-backed, cryptographically enforced identity to every device in the enterprise. The system uses Apple Secure Enclave and the ACME Device Attestation standard to ensure only verified, compliant devices can access sensitive systems—closing one of the most common gaps in Zero Trust architecture.
Cornelis Networks’ CN5000 platform has been deployed by the U.S. Department of Energy to power national security simulation workloads at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The CN5000 moves data with zero loss and zero lag across hundreds of thousands of processors, supporting high-stakes computing like nuclear safety modeling and large-scale AI training.
Q-CTRL has completed a sea trial of its quantum gravimeter aboard the Royal Australian Navy’s MV Sycamore, operating continuously for 144 hours without intervention. The software-enabled sensor detects Earth’s gravitational anomalies to provide GPS-denied navigation for ships and aircraft in contested environments.
AI Squared has launched Sparx, a plug-and-play platform that unifies sales, finance, and operations data into a real-time, AI-powered view deployable in under an hour. The platform is designed to make AI capabilities accessible to small and mid-sized businesses without complex buildouts.
Eion has signed an offtake agreement with Ripple, facilitated by Watershed, to deploy enhanced rock weathering projects in rural American communities. The deal supports revenue diversification and long-term demand growth for durable carbon removal.
Ridgeline Travel & Events
The Ridgeline team has been active across industry events, connecting with key players and driving impactful conversations.
We look forward to having impactful meetings during our travels over the next couple months. If you’re nearby, don’t hesitate to reach out.
City Visits
LA: Aug 25-30, Sept 9-13
NYC: Aug 19, 26-27
SF: Aug 25-26, Sept 2-3, Sept 23-24
DC: Aug 20-21, Sept 4-5
Colorado Springs/Denver: Sept 10-11
Philadelphia: Sept 15-16
Nashville: Sept 16-18
Chicago: Sept 22-25
If you’re in any of these cities, let us know—we’d love to connect!
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