Tech

Nominal Acquires Fid Labs

When we said the data nerds over at Nominal are on a bit of a heater a few weeks ago, we weren’t kidding.  Yesterday, the hardware testing company unveiled its first acquisition after raising $80M at a $1B valuation in March, buying up robotics and engineering agentic AI startup Fid Labs to fully integrate its […]

Pentagon

Air Force Snaps Up Powerus Interceptor Drones

The Pentagon is buying counter-drone technology for “real-world operational use” from a startup, but maybe not from one we’d expect.  Yesterday, West Palm Beach, Florida-based drone company Powerus announced a deal with the US Air Force to supply interceptor drones “at scale,” co-founder and president Brett Velicovich told Tectonic.  He couldn’t comment on the contract […]

Tech

Exclusive Interview: Anduril Unveils a 5G Sentry Tower for Remote Comms

Anduril is getting back to the basics. Everyone’s favorite neo-prime announced today the newest product in their oldest family of systems: a 5G Comms Sentry Tower (CST), built with Nokia and designed to deliver a bubble of connectivity in the most remote locations. If you thought Anduril was all-in on the boomy and zoomy things, […]

Investment

Scout AI Raises $100M to Build Robo-Warfare’s Brain 

We all know autonomy is all the rage right now, but Scout AI is taking it to the next level.  Yesterday, the California-based startup announced a $100M Series A co-led by Align Ventures and Draper Associates to, put simply, build the AI brain for the future of autonomous warfare. For those keeping score at home, […]

Investment

Firestorm Raises $82M to Scale 3D-Printed Drone Microfactories

Firestorm is, well, on fire.  The San Diego-based 3D-printed drone startup announced today that it’s raised an $82M Series B led by Washington Harbour Partners to scale production of its xCell containerized drone microfactories, “facilitate execution of contracts, and expand into a number of states around the country,” CEO Dan Magy told Tectonic.  Looks like […]

Tech

Rune Rolls Out a Military Logistics AI Agent 

Forget everything we’ve said about logistics being the unsexy domain of defense. We’re quickly leaving the days of pens, paper, whiteboards, and spreadsheets behind us and putting AI agents in the game.  Today, logistics and sustainment software startup Rune rolled out Saga, a frontline AI agent inside its flagship military logistics platform designed for reconstitution, […]

Investment

Aevex’s First Week on the Public Markets 

As we all know, there’s a whole lot of private capital going into defense these days, but, as it turns out, there’s a big appetite in the public markets, too.  California-based drone-maker Aevex ($AVEX) went public on the NYSE on April 17th, valuing the company at $2.57B after shares jumped 15 percent in their debut […]

Investment

Exclusive: Skyfire AI Closes $11M Seed Round

There’s a lot of hype around both building drones and, if you’ve been keeping up with Tectonic, making them super autonomous, but SkyfireAI is more focused on building the software around existing drones to make them easier for pilots to use.  That’s been a popular selling point with a lot of public safety agencies, and […]

Investment

Exclusive: Nomi Capital Closes $50M Defense Tech Fund I

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 […]

Pentagon

Castelion Scores $105M Navy Contract for F/A-18 Integration

Hypersonics are moving from hype to cold hard cash pretty dang fast. On Friday afternoon, the Navy announced that it’s awarded a big-time $105M contract to hypersonic startup Castelion to integrate its Blackbeard hypersonic missile onto the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and accelerate testing to get the platform to Early Operational Capability by next year.  The […]