Well, the Nordics are making some money moves, aren’t they? This morning, Danish sensor startup Sapient Perception announced in an exclusive interview with Tectonic that they’ve raised a €2M ($2.4M) pre-seed round co-led by Balnord and FORWARD.one. The company says it will use the money to “accelerate development of the company’s software-defined cameras and AI […]
If you’re a regular reader of Tectonic, you’ll know that there’s no shortage of companies promising to automate aviation. But before robots take over the cockpit, the US military’s human pilots could use a bit of AI assistance to solve a much more basic problem: Scheduling flight plans and managing disruptions without needing a whiteboard […]
It’s a rare week when we write about more contracts than we do investments, but here we are. This morning, space and defense giant Redwire ($RDW) announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that it’s been awarded $20M in follow-on orders from the Navy and Marine Corps Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program Office (PMA-263) […]
Lock in, kids. It’s time for a dose of the super-scary, invisible threats we all know and love. This morning, Ginkgo Biosecurity—the biosecurity arm of Ginkgo Bioworks—officially spun out from its Boston-based parent company as Perimeter. The new firm—led by founder and CEO Matt McKnight—has already secured a cool $60M in growth capital from Kanders […]
Dare we say it seems like the Pentagon might actually be getting with the El Segundo vibe? This morning, LA-based CX2 announced in an exclusive release to Tectonic that its Wraith “airborne EW system” (drone) and another yet-to-be-announced product have been selected for Design Reference Mission 3 (DRM3) under the Defense Innovation Unit’s Project G.I. […]
Advanced manufacturing might be all the rage in 2026, but (yet another!) startup out of El Segundo has a different take on it. Late last week Hybron—an advanced composite manufacturing startup producing carbon fiber components to replace steel and other raw materials in everything from jet engine blades to 155mm shells—announced that it’s raised a […]
The engine biz is getting buzzy, and the Pentagon is taking notice. Beehive Industries, a Colorado-based 3D-printed jet engine startup, snagged a $29.7M Air Force contract yesterday to complete vehicle integration and flight testing, and qualification of their Frenzy 8 engine—designed as a lower-cost alternative for small cruise missiles and loitering munitions—and accelerate development of […]
Interceptors really are so hot right now. This morning at the London Defense Conference, UK Secretary of State for Defense John Healey announced that the MoD will buy “hundreds” of Skyhammer interceptors from startup Cambridge Aerospace as part of a “multi-million-pound” contract. The deal covers “integration, technical support, and end user training,” and the company […]
There’s a lot of energy around fusion lately. Yesterday, Avalanche Fusion, a Seattle-based fusion startup making teeny tiny desktop-sized fusion reactors, snagged a $5.2M contract from DARPA to turn nuclear radiation into electricity for nuclear batteries under the Pentagon research agency’s Rads to Watts program. Teeny tiny: Most fusion startups are thinking pretty big, working […]
Those Ukrainian defense tech companies we have been going on and on about are certainly having a moment. On Tuesday, Croatian drone hotshot Orqa FPV announced that it’s inked a “memorandum of cooperation” with Ukrainian interceptor wunderkind General Cherry to bring the latter’s tech to Europe and NATO. The two companies plan to start co-producing […]
