Erin O'Brien

Saildrone Kicks Off Production in Europe

Just as we’re starting to gear up for the Tectonic European Defense Summit this winter (teaser, hehe), it looks like everyone and their mom is making bets on the Old Continent.  This morning, USV giant Saildrone announced that they’re officially expanding their presence in Europe with a new, larger Copenhagen office and production in the […]

Erin O'Brien
InvestmentTech

ICYMI: Riven Emerges from Stealth

Critical minerals really are so hot right now.  Yesterday, AI-and-autonomy-for-critical-minerals-processing startup Riven emerged from stealth with a cool $7.9 pre-seed led by Cerberus Ventures, with participation from Scout Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Lightscape Partners, CLAI, and New System Ventures. The company says it will use the funding to majorly scale up the team and build out […]

PentagonTech

CodeMetal Scores $80M OTA for WarMatrix

Big day for the backend side of defense.  This morning, software-for-defense hotshot Code Metal announced that it’s won a $80M OTA to “advance WarMatrix, the AI-enabled modeling and simulation platform Code Metal built in partnership with the U.S. Air Force.” “We’re really excited,” Code Metal CEO and co-founder Peter Morales told Tectonic. “The work that […]

Tech

Exclusive: VXB Unveils Mega Platform Upgrade

We spend a whole lot of time around here talking about super-high-tech hardware (the go boom and zoom of it all), but we don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about how companies design that kit. That changes today. This morning, LA-based generative design startup VXB announced (exclusively to Tectonic) an upgrade to its […]

Investment

Heaviside Raises $60M at a $600M Valuation 

Welp, they’ve gone and done it again. This morning, precision munitions startup Heaviside announced that it’s raised a $60M Series B at a $600M valuation just three months after emerging from stealth with a $28M Series A. The company is also teaming up with Norwegian munitions giant Nammo—the firm will provide the warhead for Heaviside’s […]

InvestmentTech

Archer Acquires Three Boeing Autonomous Flight Subsidiaries

Here we were thinking that defense tech’s exit era would look like giant primes buying up smaller startups. Turns out we were wrong—at least for now. Yesterday, electric aviation hotshot (and Anduril BFF) Archer Aviation announced that it would acquire three of Boeing’s autonomous flight subsidiaries—Wisk, SkyGrid and Insitu—giving the prime a 20 percent stake […]

PentagonTech

Epirus Scores $11M Contract with USMC

Everyone really is on the non-kinetic-weapon hype train right now, aren’t they? This morning, high-powered-microwave (HPM) giant Epirus announced that they’ve been awarded an $11M contract by the US Marine Corps for the High-power Microwave Autonomous Vehicle Operational Capability (HAVOC) program. Under the contract, Epirus will deliver “its latest high-power microwave (HPM) system for counter-UAS […]