Europe

ICYMI: Stark Snaps Up AeroMass Technologies

If anyone thinks M&A isn’t the road to success, someone better tell the defense tech world—and fast. Earlier this week, European defense tech darling STARK announced that it has acquired AeroMass Technologies, a “distributed manufacturing company” that says it builds “scalable, attritable systems for the modern battlefield.” The move comes just a few months after […]

Investment

Exclusive Interview: Sky Spy Scores $1.6M for SIGINT

​​We’ve talked a lot about electronic warfare recently, and it looks like we’re not stopping anytime soon.  This morning, in an exclusive interview with Tectonic, Sky Spy—a signal intelligence startup born on Ukraine’s frontlines—announced that they’ve raised a $1.6M pre-seed led by Expeditions Fund and Superangel, with participation from Freedom Fund, Sunfish Partners, Crosscourt Ventures, […]

Investment

Exclusive: New Vista Capital Raising $60M Fund I for A&D

Looks like no one’s found the shut-off valve on the defense tech funding tap yet.  This morning, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, DC-based VC New Vista Capital announced that it’s officially raising a $60M Fund I that it will deploy into early-stage aerospace and defense startups. In a world where everyone and their mom […]

Tech

Exclusive: CX2 Unveils Wraith for RF Detection

In case you haven’t been paying attention, electronic warfare is kind of a big thing right now.  Few are more aware of that than CX2, the El Segundo-based defense tech startup that says it’s “securing spectrum dominance for the United States and its allies.” This morning, in an exclusive release to Tectonic, the company unveiled […]

EuropeInvestment

Quantum Systems Raises €180M at €3B Valuation

Well, the Europeans aren’t showing any signs of slowing down on the drone front. On Friday, German ISR UAS company (and STARK forefather) Quantum Systems announced that it has raised a €180M ($209M) Series C extension at a €3B ($3.49B) valuation, led by Balderton Capital. This comes on the heels of a €160M ($186M) raise […]

InvestmentPolicy

Taiwan’s $40B Defense Spending Boost

Well, the whole defense spending kick is showing no signs of abating. Yesterday, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te announced in an op-ed in the Washington Post that his country plans to spend an extra $40B (about NT$1.25T) on defense to counter the growing threat from China.  A massive portion of the supplementary defense package—which would be […]

Tech

Heven AeroTech and IonQ Team Up

The season of mashups continues, except this time it’s a cross-domain remix.  Yesterday, Israeli-American hydrogen drone company Heven AeroTech announced that it’s teaming up with quantum giant IonQ ($IONQ) to develop “quantum-enabled drones for national security applications.”  Basically, that means that IonQ’s quantum tech—including quantum computing, quantum networking, quantum sensing, and quantum security technologies—will be […]

InvestmentTech

Cyber Warfare Startup Twenty Emerges from Stealth

For all of the time we spend talking about the shiny, go-boom side of defense, we haven’t spent too much time in this newsletter on one of the scarier sides of modern conflict: cyber warfare. Lucky for us, a startup called Twenty that came out of stealth last week is all over it. The company—founded […]

EuropePentagonTech

Kraken Scores $49M USSOCOM OTA

Turns out the leap across the pond goes both ways. This morning, UK-based USV company Kraken Technology Group announced that they’ve scored a coveted $49M cap OTA with United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to develop and prototype “novel uncrewed surface and subsurface vessel technologies to enhance maritime capabilities for U.S. special operations forces.” This […]

Tech

Vulcan Elements Picks NC for its Mega Magnet Facility

Well, the US hype for rare earths is showing no signs of slowing down.  Yesterday, US rare earths processing giant Vulcan Elements announced that it will build its Pentagon-backed magnet manufacturing facility in Benson, North Carolina. As promised, the facility will have 10,000 metric tonnes of rare earth magnet manufacturing capacity and, the company says, […]