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 […]
Well, we’re back with more Heven AeroTech news—and man, oh man, do the drone dollars keep on comin’. On Monday, the Israeli-American hydrogen-powered drone startup announced that it’s closed a whopping $100M Series B funding round led by their new friends at IonQ, valuing the company at $1B. The Chinese Zodiac calendar officially says it’s […]
Ukraine’s path to NATO is looking shakier by the day, but that hasn’t stopped the alliance from pushing to integrate the country’s battle-tested tech into Europe’s defense tech ecosystem. Late last week, as we were all enjoying our turkey, NATO and Ukraine unveiled a new competition called “UNITE–Brave NATO,” designed to accelerate the adoption of […]
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 […]
The counter-drone club just got its newest—and maybe youngest—member. In an exclusive release to Tectonic, Thermopylae, a California-based interceptor drone startup launched in June by a 21-year-old Ukrainian engineer, announced it has raised $1.6M in pre-seed funding. New kids: Drawing its name from the famous Spartan battle against the Persians immortalized in the movie “300,” […]
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 […]
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 […]
Well, the drone dollars keep on coming. On Thursday, Alabama-based drone maker Performance Drone Works (PDW) secured a $35M strategic investment from Ondas Autonomous Systems (OAS), the drone and counter-drone business unit of Boston-based defense tech holding company Ondas Holdings. Speeding up: PDW was founded in 2018 out of the Drone Racing League (basically drone […]
For all of the antiquated critiques that defense tech isn’t an investable sector, a whole lot of investors would beg to differ. On Monday, aviation autonomy hotshot Merlin announced over $75M in new private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing, increasing the total capital raised from $125M to more than $200M ahead of their expected […]
Despite the government being shut down for 43 days—the longest in US history—the Pentagon was certainly open for business. After the House struck a deal and President Trump signed a continuing resolution to keep the government open through January last week, the DoD’s workforce returned to their desks to announce nearly $9B in new contracts […]
