Looks like no one’s found the shut-off valve on the defense tech funding tap just yet.
This morning, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, New York-based VC Nomi Capital announced that it raised a $50M Fund I that it will deploy into later-stage defense tech startups this year, with over $20M of that already allocated into six companies out of about ten positions targeted in total.
Founded in 2024, Nomi may be the new kid on an increasingly crowded block, but founder and managing partner Jason Zins—a former partner at SkyBridge Capital—and his first hire, Brent Gerundo, a US Army Special Operations veteran and former defense investment banker at Goldman Sachs, are looking to do things a little differently.
Safe bets: In a world where everyone and their mom wants to be the first check into the next Anduril, Nomi’s team says that what sets them apart is their focus on backing companies “at their inflection point—going from the R&D phase to real revenue generation,” Zins told Tectonic. “We don’t do early stage, we don’t do pre-product, we don’t do pre-revenue.”
“A lot of the more well-known defense VCs typically focus on the early stage, and you’re starting to have some of the more traditional growth investors step in at the later stage, but really only in the mega-rounds—like Saronic and Shield AI—because they need to deploy such a significant amount of capital,” Zins said. “Where we really focus is in between those two segments, so Series B onward.”
- Nomi has five core focus areas: Autonomy & Unmanned Systems, AI & Communications, Manufacturing & Supply Chain, Space Tech, and Energy & Power.
- Manufacturing is the area “we’re most focused on and expect to have the largest exposure to,” he added.
- Check size ranges between “as small as $2M [to] as large as $10M, but we can flex up and down pretty meaningfully.”
Deep bench: Another difference is Nomi’s “unique” LP base of around 150 high-net-worth investors, family offices, and Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) that Zins worked closely with during his decade at SkyBridge.
“That LP base is a feature, not a bug. They move fast on co-investments, hold for the long term, and don’t need committee approval to act,” he said. “It lets us flex up meaningfully on high-conviction deals.”
Fund focus: Out of the $50M Fund I, Nomi’s already invested in six companies, with another four on the horizon this year.
- Counting previous investments, the firm has around $100M in assets under management across 24 investments, which include Anduril, Castelion, Epirus, Gecko Robotics, and other familiar names to Tectonic readers.
- Nomi couldn’t name all of the companies they’ve backed in Fund I, but 3D-printed propellant and rocket motor-maker Firehawk Aerospace and satellite servicing startup Starfish Space—which closed a $100M Series B this month—are two.
- “Looking at companies like Firehawk, they’re well-positioned to scale the unsexy things like 155mm [artillery] and Hydra-70 rockets,” Gerundo said. “That’s not the most sexy, exquisite system, but it’s something that we have a drastic shortage of that really does move the needle when it comes to a great power conflict.”
You know we love the unsexy side of defense at Tectonic.