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 […]

Investment

Skydio Raises $110M at $4.4B Valuation

The drone dollars keep on coming. Yesterday, California-based drone hotshot Skydio announced a $110M Series F, boosting its valuation from $2.5B after its 2024 Series E extension to an eye-watering $4.4B.  The raise comes exactly a month after the company snagged a $52M US Army contract for 2,500 of its X10D small-UAS—the largest sUAS order […]

Investment

Fortem Secures $25M Investment from Lockheed Martin

Looks like the big dogs are finally realizing that a lot of the tech they need might very well be sitting right here in startup land. Yesterday, up-and-coming defense company Lockheed Martin announced a $25M investment into Utah-based counter-drone startup Fortem Technologies, a sum that represents, according to the prime, “the initial tranche of Fortem’s […]

PentagonTech

Exclusive: Overland AI Demos ROGUE Fires Prototype

Overland AI’s souped-up autonomous ATV, ULTRA, has been a hit with the Army, but the Marine Corps is, quite literally, thinking bigger. The Seattle-based ground autonomy startup announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic today that it’s on contract with the Marines to integrate its OverDrive autonomy stack on the Corps’ ROGUE Fires prototype vehicle—and […]

PentagonTech

Exclusive: The Marines Snap Up Valinor’s Hospital-in-a-Box 

Valinor launched last year with a focus on building the unsexy but critically important tech for modern conflict, and that pitch is starting to pay off. This morning, the new-age defense tech holding company announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it secured a Marine Corps contract for Harbor, its modern, mobile, and software-centric […]

Tech

Exclusive: KBR Taps Tagup’s Logistics AI Platform 

Tag, you’re it! In an exclusive release in Tectonic this morning, big-time prime KBR announced that it’s tapped Tagup’s AI-powered defense logistics software to bring some startup spice to its “global logistics mission sets,” starting off with ground equipment maintenance and logistics planning operations.  In 2026, the unsexy side of defense is turning out to […]