Pentagon

The Navy and DIU Tap Anduril’s Dive-XL for Drone Sub Program

Sounds like it’s time for Palmer Luckey to bust out the bikini again.  On Thursday, everyone’s favorite teeny tiny defense startup Anduril announced that their Dive-XL autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) was tapped by the Defense Innovation Unit and the US Navy for the Combat Autonomous Maritime Platform (CAMP) drone sub program.  Deep Dive: In case […]

Pentagon

ICYMI: Rune Scores $2M SBIR with the US Army

Big day for the unsexy side of defense. On Thursday, military logistics startup Rune Technologies announced that they’ve scored a $2M Direct to Phase II SBIR contract with the US Army in support of the service’s PORTAL (Predict, Optimize, Recommend, and Track for Adaptive Logistics) program. The company says that over the next 18 months, […]

Tech

Exclusive: Nominal and Forterra Team Up

Well, Nominal is certainly having quite the past few weeks.  This morning—on the heels of an $80M raise led by Founder’s Fund and an official partnership with Anduril—the Austin-based testing startup announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that they’re officially teaming up with ground autonomy hotshot Forterra. Nominal CEO Cameron McCord told Tectonic that […]

Europe

Kraken Secures £12.3M USV Contract with the Royal Navy

Things may be heating up on the maritime autonomy front stateside, but don’t sleep on our friends across the pond.  Yesterday, the UK Ministry of Defence awarded British unmanned surface vessel (USV) startup Kraken Technology Group a £12.3M ($16.5M) contract to supply the Royal Navy with 20 of its super speedy K3 Scout drone boats.  […]

Europe

Arondite Secures “Multi-Million” Pound Contract With the UK MoD 

Watch out, y’all. The British are coming.  Earlier today, Arondite, a UK-based startup building integration tech to make those autonomous systems we all know and love work together nicely, announced a “multi-million” pound contract with the UK Ministry of Defence to deploy its Cobalt software across the British Army’s Very High Readiness Force.  Teamwork: If […]

InvestmentTech

Exclusive: HavocAI’s All-Domain Shopping Spree

We keep saying maritime autonomy is all the rage, but multi-domain autonomy is really where it’s at.  This morning, Rhode Island-based unmanned surface vehicle (USV) startup HavocAI announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it has acquired not one but two companies—heavy-lift drone-maker Mavrik and industrial vehicle autonomy startup Teleo—to take its autonomy software […]

Investment

Isembard Raises $50M Series A

Manufacturing is so back, baby. Well, at least if AI and defense are involved.  Yesterday, UK-based advanced manufacturing startup Isembard announced it has raised a $50M Series A round led by Union Square Ventures to accelerate its plan to open 25 factories by the end of the year.  CEO Alexander Fitzgerald told Tectonic that most […]

Investment

Scout Ventures Raises $125M Fund V

If anyone thought the defense tech hype train was slowing down, think again. This morning, Austin-based fund Scout Ventures announced that it’s closed a $125M Fund V to invest in tech companies that are building “artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, space infrastructure, cyber, quantum, and advanced power technologies.” The new fund brings total funding raised by […]

Investment

Exclusive: R2 Wireless Raises an Additional $5M

We’re sensing that things are just starting to heat up on the drone detection front, and investors are, too. This morning, Israeli-American radio frequency (RF) sensing startup R2 Wireless announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it raised $5M in a funding round led by Origin Ventures, with participation from Spring Rock Capital, Corner […]

InvestmentTech

Dominion Dynamics Invests $37M to Get Canada in the CCA Game

After a quiet few years, it looks like our friendly neighbors up north are diving headfirst into defense tech. Hot off a $15.2M ($21M CAD) seed round in January, Canadian defense tech startup Dominion Dynamics kicked things up a notch late last week, announcing plans to invest $37M ($50M CAD) to kickstart development of Scout, […]