Well, the UK is (kind of) putting its money where its mouth is? At the very least, they’ve got an all-star on their naming committee. On Friday, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that they’d officially carried out their first-ever “Dragon’s Den” style competition, where ten defense and dual-use startups (per the MoD) pitched […]
If you’re looking for something to cure your post-Super Bowl blues, the Department of Defense has you covered. Last week, the Pentagon revealed the 25 vendors selected to face off in the first phase of the Drone Dominance Program (DDP), the department’s $1.1B initiative to buy up tons of low-cost UAVs for the Army, and […]
Remember when Y Combinator startups made food delivery and crypto apps? Well, times they have a-changed. This week, a new startup called Seeing Systems emerged out of the famed accelerator’s 2026 winter cohort, and they’re definitely not making widgets. The UK-based team—founded by two brothers—is building autonomous strike drones, and they’re already seeing early traction […]
Look out, world. The defense tech bros are teaming up across the Atlantic. Yesterday, Croatian drone wunderkind and California-based drone and additive manufacturing company Firestorm announced that they’re officially teaming up to 3D print Orqa’s teeny-tiny FPVs for frontline operators. According to Firestorm CEO Dan Magy and Orqa CEO Srdjan Kovacevic, both companies and customers […]
Missiles are having a moment, and a new startup out of Texas wants in. Earlier this week, missile-making startup Galadyne formally launched with a lofty goal: Founder Chandler Luzsicza and his team want to completely rethink how missiles are made. And, lucky for them, they’ve raised $4.8M in pre-seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Pax Ventures, […]
Are you feeling the reindustrialize vibes yet? Well, you should be, because investors certainly are. Yesterday, advanced manufacturing startup Machina Labs closed a $124M Series C to build its first large-scale “intelligent factory.” The idea is to use AI-powered robots to rethink how everything from car parts to drone and missile airframes are made. The […]
We’ve talked a lot around here about how AI is changing the way wars are fought, but we haven’t spent all that much time talking about how it’s going to change the way intelligence is gathered and analyzed. That changes today. This morning, AI-powered intelligence company Whitespace announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that […]
If anyone was hoping that 2026 was going to be a bit chiller in defense tech land than 2025, well, shit luck for you. Yesterday, flight autonomy company Skyryse announced that it’s raised a whopping $300M Series C, bringing its valuation to $1.15B. (Unicorn status, baby!) The round was led by Autopilot Ventures and Fidelity […]
If you hadn’t noticed, there’s a whole lot of new defense tech coming onto the scene, and, as it turns out, the Pentagon is pretty interested in making sure all of it works together. That’s been good news for Picogrid. Yesterday, the El Segundo-based integration startup announced a $9.3M contract with the Air Force to […]
Last week, we said that Overland AI keeps notching wins, and they just keep coming. Yesterday, the Seattle-based ground autonomy startup announced a fresh $100M funding round led by 8VC, which the company says will help boost production of its autonomous ground vehicles. The new round brings Overland’s total funding to $142M. Remember what we […]
