The era of France’s most famous exports being wine, cheese, and Spurs phenoms may be coming to an end, at least if Alta Ares has anything to do with it. This morning, the French counter-drone software and hardware startup announced that it’s raised a €50M ($58M) Series A led by Air Street Capital, alongside Cherry […]
If y’all thought the drone craze was dying down, think again. In the past 24 hours, German defense tech darling STARK unveiled not one but two new drones—Cascade and Gambit—at ILA Berlin. Gambit is a man-portable quadcopter designed for ISR and short-range strikes, while Cascade is a tube-launched loitering munition (also man-portable) with a range […]
The Nordics are heating up, y’all. This morning, Norwegian VC Sandwater announced the launch of a new €80M ($92M) fund called Gardar, which will “[invest] in Ukrainian defence tech startups from Seed to Series B.” The new fund was set up in conjunction with Ferd AS (a big ol’ family-owned Norwegian investment firm) and Munkene, […]
The defense tech unicorn club just got its newest member. On Friday, Austin-based counter-drone startup Allen Control Systems announced a $200M Series B led by Smash Capital at a whopping $2.2B post-money valuation—a massive jump from its $170M Series A valuation last year. The drone-downing dollars really do just keep on coming. Ribbit ribbit: A […]
When the Department of Energy launched the Reactor Pilot Program last June, it set a July 4, 2026, target for startups to switch on their microreactors and hit criticality—when a nuclear fission chain reaction becomes self-sustaining. Antares, an LA-based space and defense-focused nuclear startup, beat that deadline by a month. Yesterday, the company reached initial […]
The Marines are on a bit of a spending spree this week, aren’t they? Yesterday, the Marine Corps announced that it intends to issue a sole-source contract to Anduril for non-kinetic counter-drone technology for its Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACVs), including the company’s Pulsar-L EW platform and vehicle integration kits “to meet an urgent requirement.” According […]
Component manufacturing really is so hot right now. This morning, new-age manufacturing startup Volund Manufacturing announced that it’s raised a $12M seed round led by Root Ventures and Squadra to build low-cost gas turbine engines. New investor Output Capital also participated in the round, and Marlinspike, Alpha Delta Ventures, and First In returned to the […]
Turns out that a whole lot of global instability is blowing the IPO window wide open for defense companies. Applied Aerospace & Defense—a Huntsville, Alabama-based, PE-backed defense and space subsystem manufacturer—went public on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, raising $650M in its IPO and valuing the company at $3.25B after pricing shares near the […]
We write about drones, self-guided missiles, robots, and all of the other tech taking over the battlefield of the future every day. What we write about less are the overlooked-but-critical subcomponents inside each of them. Ya know, the stuff that actually makes them work. A big part of that is because there aren’t a whole […]
Big week for robotics around here, huh? This morning, US-Israeli robotics startup Shifters announced that it’s raised a $10.2M seed round led by Ace Capital Partners, bringing total funding to $15M. Other participants in the round include Aurelius Capital Management, Corner Ventures, and Arkin Capital. The company says the money will accelerate the development of […]
