InvestmentTech

Andrenam Raises $10M in Seed Funding

Remember when we said that maritime is all the rage? Well, we’re back to prove our point. This week, AI-powered sonar company Andrenam announced they’ve raised $10M in seed funding to build out their core tech – a distributed network of underwater acoustic sensors.  When Tectonic chatted with Cernosek about the raise, he was on […]

Tech

Applied Intuition Retrofits an Autonomous ISV—In 10 Days

One day last month, a very precious delivery arrived at autonomous vehicle company Applied Intuition’s garage: a Humvee and an infantry squad vehicle (ISV), sent by the Secretary of the Army, Daniel P. Driscoll, himself. He had visited the company’s headquarters with Army Chief of Staff Randy George a few days prior, seen the company’s […]

InvestmentTech

Gecko Sees Green

Gecko’s a unicorn: It’s been a big year for Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics. In the past few months, they’ve signed a $100M deal with a top US power grid operator, partnered with L3Harris on remote aircraft maintenance, and—last but certainly not least—hit unicorn status last week after raising $125M at a $1.25B valuation.  That’s a lot […]

Tech

Helsing Successfully Flies with AI

Autonomous fighter jets, here we come. This week, Germany-based artificial intelligence company Helsing announced that their AI agent Centaur successfully took control of a Swedish Saab Gripen-E combat jet in flight tests over the Baltic Sea. According to the company, Centaur took over long-range flight controls from a human pilot, pulled off some complex flight […]

Tech

Exclusive: Havoc AI Teams Up with Tocaro Blue

If you thought you’d seen the end of defense tech start-ups teaming up, think again.  This morning, unmanned surface vessel (USV) company Havoc AI announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’re teaming up with Tocaro Blue to integrate the company’s ProteusCore™ marine radar processing system onto Havoc’s vessels. Paul Lwin, CEO of Havoc […]

InvestmentTech

Maxar and Saab Team Up

Everyone really is making that great leap across the pond.  Yesterday, geospatial intelligence company Maxar announced that it’s teaming up with Swedish defense giant Saab to build space-based C5ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, for the uninitiated) told to help militaries “stay connected and aware, even when GPS goes down.” “By […]

Tech

Anduril and Meta Team Up

Remember when Meta was very, very careful to distance itself from defense? Oh, and also when Anduril founder Palmer Luckey was ousted from the company (then called Facebook) in 2017?  Well, times they have a-changed. Late last week, Anduril and Meta announced a strategic partnership to build extended reality (XR) products for the US military. […]

InvestmentPentagonTech

Firehawk Scores $4.9M AFRL Contract, Announces New Facility

We told you that things were speeding up. Late last week, energetics company Firehawk Aerospace announced that they’ve secured a $4.9M contract with the US Air Force to help accelerate the development of next-gen hybrid rocket engines for strategic and tactical missiles. Firehawk CEO Will Edwards told Tectonic that the company will work with AFRL […]

Tech

Hermeus Lifts Off

Things are speeding up, and quick. High-speed aircraft company Hermeus announced on Tuesday that it’s completed the long-awaited flight test of its Quarterhorse Mk 1 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, marking a “significant step in Hermeus’ development of high-Mach and hypersonic aircraft,” according to the company.  Hermeus aims to use super-quick, iterative development […]

Tech

Applied Intuition Expands its Autonomy Suite with Axion and Acuity

Way, way back in February (we were so young, so innocent), we wrote about autonomous vehicle software company Applied Intuition acquiring EpiSci, which builds autonomy software for everything from drones, to planes, to boats. Well, it seems the first fruits of the acquisition have been born.  On Tuesday, the company unveiled two hot new defense […]