NRFC invests in Liquid Instruments - Australian Defence Magazine

The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) to invest $28.45 million in test and measurement company Liquid Instruments.

Liquid Instruments manufactures proprietary software-enabled hardware that enables laboratories to replace common precision measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers, and signal generators with a single device.

“Today’s National Reconstruction Fund investment in Liquid Instruments is an example of the scale and impact Australia’s research and development has when joined up with industry – commercialising onshore, attracting significant private investment and creating high-quality local jobs," Minister for Industry & Innovation and Minister for Science, Senator Tim Ayres, said.

“Advanced manufacturing is critical to building the nation’s economic resilience and strengthening local Australian capability.”

Its technology is already being used across a diverse range of fields, including quantum computing, semiconductors, aerospace and education, and its customers include global technology companies such as Nvidia, Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin, PsiQuantum, BYD, and Intel.

With Lockheed Martin as one of the company's customers, their instruments contributed to NASA's recent Artemis II mission.

“Liquid Instruments is commercialising Nobel Prize‑winning measurement technology and we are proud to be investing in a company that is bringing to market intellectual property that was developed at the Australian National University," NRFC CIO, Mary Manning, stated.

“Our investment in Liquid Instruments will build Australia’s sovereign advanced manufacturing capability while also enabling Australian companies in the semiconductor, communications manufacturing, defence, aerospace manufacturing, and research space to develop and validate their own high-tech products and services.”

NRFC funding will be used to scale up Liquid Instruments’ Melbourne-based manufacturing facilities, accelerate its product expansion and global sales.

Liquid Instruments was founded in 2014 out of research conducted at the Australian National University (ANU). Its flagship Moku range of products integrate multiple analogue laboratory instruments into a single configurable digital device, allowing users to switch between instruments.

Founded by a team of scientists, Liquid Instruments is led by Daniel Shaddock and Danielle Wuchenich. Shaddock is an Australian physicist who was involved in the gravitational wave research recognised by the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was also a Director’s Fellow at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Wuchenich is an ANU PhD graduate who worked alongside Shaddock at JPL and is Liquid Instruments’ Chief Operating Officer.

“The National Reconstruction Fund’s investment enables Liquid Instruments to consolidate its manufacturing in Australia while continuing to scale globally," Liquid Instruments Founder and CEO, Shaddock highlighted.

“Advanced manufacturing is a critical sovereign capability. It takes decades to build and can be lost almost overnight. With modest but consistent support, it can thrive and it has never been clearer that Australia must retain the capability to design, build, and deliver world-class technology from within its own borders.”

“Liquid Instruments designs, develops, and manufactures its technology entirely in Australia while generating more than 90 percent of its revenue from international markets, and I am proud that Liquid Instruments is able to work with and support our world-class Australian manufacturing partners as we scale together.”

The NRFC’s investment is part of a $70 million Series C funding round that is being co-led by Keysight Technologies. Other investors include Breakthrough Victoria, Acorn Capital, Significant Capital Ventures and Tribeca.

“The industry is shifting toward software-first and AI-enabled architectures and Liquid Instruments extends this by using software and AI to directly shape hardware behavior, creating more adaptable instrumentation. Together with Keysight’s extensive portfolio, this enables more scalable and integrated test solutions," Vice President of Software Transformation at Keysight Technologies, Joaquin Torrecilla, commented.