First In Closes $148M Fund III to Invest in Early-Stage Security Technologies

The security and defense tech markets do not move on hype cycles. They move when capital, experience, and timing line up with problems that actually matter. That moment just showed up again. First In closed Fund 3 SBIC Critical Technologies with $148M in investable capital, and in the world of cybersecurity and national security infrastructure, that number carries weight. This is not just another venture vehicle raising money to chase momentum. The fund is structured through the SBA’s SBIC Critical Technologies program, which means institutional capital combined with federal leverage aimed directly at technologies the United States considers strategically important.

Credit where it is due. Congratulations to Renny McPherson, Founder and Managing Partner of First In, and Arthur Karell, Partner at First In, for bringing this one across the line. Anyone who has spent time in the cybersecurity and national security ecosystem knows Renny McPherson’s track record does not start with venture capital. The path runs through the U.S. Marine Corps intelligence community and through RedOwl Analytics, the security analytics company later acquired by Forcepoint and Raytheon. That kind of background shapes how you see risk, how you read markets, and more importantly how you recognize the technologies that actually matter.

First In launched in 2020 with a tight thesis that never tried to be everything to everyone. Security technology. Cybersecurity. Data intelligence. Automation. Defense and dual use systems that serve both commercial resilience and national security. It is a lane that requires real domain knowledge because the distance between hype and hard reality in these sectors is about three inches wide.

Back in 2022 the firm had already closed its first fund and was managing more than $55M in capital. Fast forward to today and Fund 3 lands at $148M in investable firepower. Oversubscribed. Structured through the SBA SBIC Critical Technologies program. That structure matters because it channels serious capital into U.S. small businesses building technologies the country cannot afford to outsource or ignore.

What stands out about First In is right there in the name. The strategy is not to chase the crowd once a sector gets loud. The strategy is to arrive early, back founders solving hard security problems, and give them the capital runway to build technologies that protect data, infrastructure, and institutions before the rest of the market wakes up to the urgency.

Security is not a trend. It is infrastructure for the modern economy. Every company that touches data, networks, automation, or national defense eventually runs into the same question. Who is building the systems that keep everything from falling apart when the pressure hits?