Advanced manufacturing might be all the rage in 2026, but (yet another!) startup out of El Segundo has a different take on it. Late last week Hybron—an advanced composite manufacturing startup producing carbon fiber components to replace steel and other raw materials in everything from jet engine blades to 155mm shells—announced that it’s raised a […]
Well, if you thought that the LA defense tech scene couldn’t get any hotter, think again. Yesterday, super-ultra-fast aircraft company Hermeus announced that they’ve raised a cool $350M Series C at a $1B valuation and that they’re building a big ol’ HQ in El Segundo. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with continued support […]
You know an industry is blowing up when the private equity (PE) guys are coming for it. Yesterday, New York and Florida-based PE fund OceanSound Partners closed a $3.4B Fund II to invest in “technology and technology-enabled services companies serving aerospace, defense, government and highly regulated enterprise end markets.” The oversubscribed fund (goal was $2B) […]
In case you weren’t aware, defense isn’t always about the stuff that goes boom. Sometimes it’s about the (arguably much scarier) stuff we can’t immediately see. Lucky for us, a newly funded startup is here to help. This morning, Dutch biotech company Inbiome announced that it has raised a $16M Series A co-led by the […]
If anyone thought the hype for maritime would fade, what with the whole “potential extended ground war in Iran” thing, think again. This morning, autonomous maritime giant Saronic announced that it’s raised a $1.75B Series D—yes, billion with a “B”—at a $9.25B post-money valuation. Again, yes, that’s all with a “B”. The round was led […]
In case you missed it amidst the, like, ten thousand mega-raises in the past few days, it’s been quite the week for a certain Alabama-based drone company. On Wednesday, Huntsville-based Performance Drone Works announced that it’s raised a cool $110M+ Series B led by Ondas with participation from Hood River, Cedar Pine, Hanwha Asset Management’s […]
Well, we all saw it coming. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Shield AI was in talks to raise $1B. Turns out the autonomy startup—and investors—had a bit more money on their mind. This morning, Shield AI announced that it has raised a $2B Series G led by Advent International and JPMorgan’s Security and Resiliency Initiative, […]
Big week for the nuts and bolts side of defense. Yesterday, Sift—an El Segundo-based startup building the data infrastructure layer for autonomous machines—announced that it’s raised a $42M Series B led by StepStone with participation from GV (Google Ventures), Riot Ventures, Fika Ventures, and CIV. The company says it’ll use the new cash money to […]
If anyone thought the collective spending spree on defense tech was coming to an end any time soon, think again. Yesterday, Texas-based VC Overmatch Ventures announced that it’s raised a cool $250M second fund, less than 2 years after raising a debut $70M fund in 2024. Jordan Blashek—GP at Overmatch—told Tectonic that this new pile […]
With all eyes on an autonomous future of flight, it’s easy to forget the human pilots who will remain firmly in the cockpit for the foreseeable future. Luckily, one San Francisco-based company is remaining focused on people, even as we await the rise of the robots. Yesterday, Navi AI—a startup using AI to improve pilot […]
