Well, so much for the defense tech bubble popping. This morning, defense tech giant Anduril announced that it’s raised a $5B—yes, billion with a B—Series H at a $61B valuation led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The round brings total funding raised by the megalith to over $11B over eight rounds. “Investors have […]
The energy around directed energy keeps amping up. (Again, forgive us.) Late last week, the Pentagon’s Army-led counter-drone Joint Interagency Task Force 401 (JIATF-401) announced five military bases selected for a directed-energy counter-UAS pilot program, focused on deploying directed-energy tech, including “high-energy lasers” and “high-powered microwave systems,” to defend the airspace from the ever-present drone […]
Well, looks like Saildrone’s $37M BPA from last summer is getting put to good use. Yesterday, the sailboat-drone company announced that it’s won a $15.5M contract with the US Coast Guard (USCG) to deploy 16 Saildrone Voyager vessels in the Great Lakes and off the US Northeast coast. “We’re augmenting the Coast Guard because they’ve […]
Well, folks, we’re starting the week off with a bang. (Forgive us.) This morning, munitions startup Heaviside came out of stealth with a $28M Series A in an exclusive release to Tectonic. The round was led by Interlagos Capital with participation from Menlo Ventures, Flume Ventures, Cantos Ventures, Anorak Ventures, Frank Finelli (senior advisor and […]
Up until recently, satellite imagery was the domain of well-funded intelligence services and militaries. These days, a range of commercial actors are filling OSINT social media feeds and reporting with near-real-time updates from their eyes in the skies over Ukraine, Iran, the South China Sea, and wherever else the US government is keeping tabs on. […]
So, the fun thing about defense tech is that no matter how shiny, or fast, or go-boom it is, it doesn’t mean a whole lot if it doesn’t work hand in hand with everything else on the battlefield. Luckily, at least one service seems to be tackling the whole “make sure this stuff works when […]
Well, if anyone thought the software hype era was over, think again. In case you missed it, on Wednesday, the Pentagon’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) increased its enterprise agreement with AI integration and training giant Scale AI from $100M to $500M, supporting “the Department’s strategic imperative to accelerate the adoption of data, […]
Defense tech isn’t all drone swarms and software. Sometimes the basic, unsexy stuff is the most important, especially when you live on the doorstep of Europe’s largest land war since WWII. Yesterday, SWEBAL, a Swedish startup founded by a fintech entrepreneur (totally normal career path), announced that it raised €30M to change the way Europe […]
Another day, another defense tech funding round. Yesterday, Darkhive announced that it’s raised $30M in a Series B funding round led by RTX Ventures to deliver on the $49.7M APFIT contract—the program’s highest single award to date—that the San Antonio-based startup won in December and went public with in March. Hive hype: Founded in 2021, […]
The Army, to put it simply, is pretty into its drones these days. They’re so into drones that they’re even testing out big drones that launch small ones. During recent live-fire exercises down at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) in Fort Polk, Louisiana, the Army’s 101st Airborne Division turned Petrel Technologies’ Group 3 UAS, […]
