Tech

Exclusive: MDA Awards X-Bow $11M for Low-Cost Interceptor Development

We don’t have to tell you the interceptor shortage is very real and very dire, but much of this discussion focuses on Group 3 (i.e., Shahed-type) UAS threats. Russia and Iran certainly have used smaller, cheaper drones en masse, but a lot of the real damage—in Iran’s case—inflicted on US bases in the Middle East […]

Barratt Dewey
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 […]

InvestmentTech

Neros Plans Production Scale and New Products After $250M Raise

When we said that “a certain El Segundo-based company is doing very well on the whole Drone Dominance Program (DDP) front,” we might’ve undersold it—that certain company is doing very well on all fronts.  Yesterday, the FPV phenoms at Neros announced that they raised $250M in a funding round co-led by Sequoia and American Strategic […]

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 […]

PentagonTech

Exclusive: Swarm Aero Wins $10M Air Force Research Lab Contract

When you think of a drone swarm, a cloud of speedy little quadcopters flying in unison probably comes to mind. Swarm Aero has a different vision.  The California-based startup is building a much larger, Reaper-sized Group 5 drone, designed to be mass-manufacturable and capable of operating in a swarm using its own in-house autonomy and […]