Turns out everyone still really loves a tiny little plane. Yesterday, autonomous aviation company (and Anduril BFF) Joby Aviation ($JOBY) announced that its US Air Force autonomy contracts have grown to nearly $37M in total commitments, up from roughly $20M previously. The increases come after Joby completed an autonomous flight (on a Cessna Caravan) across […]
Looks like the whole reindustrialize wave ain’t over just yet. This morning, robotics-for-manufacturing startup Aformic announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it’s raised a $6.95M seed round led by Veteran Ventures Capital. Aformic CEO Michal Fiuk told Tectonic that from here, the plan is to scale up production of—and customers for—its in-factory intralogistics […]
Business is truly booming in the boom business. Yesterday, Austin-based new-age missile startup Aeon announced that it’s snagged a $13.8M contract to deliver an initial production batch of its software-defined, shoulder-fired Zeus missiles to US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The deal covers roughly 100 of the systems, expected to be shipped out over the next […]
Back when we started Tectonic, we wondered (out loud, a lot) when the great wave of prime-startup partnerships would come into full swing. It seems, nearly two years on, that we’re officially in the thick of it. Yesterday, contested logistics UAV startup Grid Aero announced that it’s inked an official partnership with Oshkosh Defense (not […]
Rumors of Aevex’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. On Friday, the California-based drone-maker announced that it’s secured $41.6M across two contracts with the Navy for its Fisher and SightGlass mine countermeasure (MCM) systems, designed to be deployed from the company’s Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) and its newer Lynx and Chaser small unmanned surface vessels […]
Last year, it was all, “Everyone loves a tiny little autonomous plane.” Now it’s all, “Everyone loves a tiny little helicopter.” What’s next? Yesterday, autonomy giant Shield AI announced that it’s inked a partnership with European prime Leonardo to integrate its flagship Hivemind autonomy stack onto Proteus, the prime’s “uncrewed rotorcraft” (read: helicopter drone). “Leonardo […]
Founded last year, Foundry is assembling everything from robotic dogs to unmanned underwater vehicles and quadcopters.
In case you missed it, there is a new player on the unsexy side of defense. Last week, a new AI-powered planning and logistics company called Watchtower Labs emerged from stealth with $35M in seed funding led by Shield Capital and Conviction, with participation from Founders Fund. The idea is to build “AI-native applications that […]
The data nerds over at Nominal are (still) on a bit of a heater, this time with one of the Air Force’s most ambitious programs. The testing startup announced yesterday that it’s been selected for a $71.2M AFWERX Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI)—split between $30M of Nominal’s own cash and $41.2M of government funding—to expand its […]
CoAspire selected X-Bow to provide SRM boosters for Navy’s Coalition Heterogeneous Affordable Offensive Strike (CHAOS) program.
