MENLO TIMES

Buntar Aerospace, a Ukrainian defense tech startup building autonomous combat systems, led by Ivan Kaunov, Bohdan Sas, and Kateryna Bezsudna, has locked in a $16 million investment round led by Freedom Fund and a top-tier international private equity fund, joined by Gardar, Iron Wolf, and Autonomy Capital, taking the company's total funding to $30 million. Buntar Aerospace deploys the Buntar-1 reconnaissance drone alongside Buntar Copilot, software designed to support drone o

Tekever, Europe’s leading provider of AI-powered autonomous systems, led by Ricardo Mendes, and the team, has announced the first close of its US$580 million Series D financing, valuing the company at US$6.4 billion. UC Investments (University of California) and Baillie Gifford led the round, which marks UC Investments’ first direct investment in Europe. Merlyn Advisors joined TEKEVER as a new strategic investor alongside continued investment from shareholders Crescent Cove,

Mach Industries, building next-generation defense systems, led by Ethan Thornton, raised $600 million more, taking its Series C total to $900 million. The extension pushes the Series C’s total size to $900 million and takes Mach’s lifetime funding past $1 billion, just over a year after a Series B valued it at $470 million. Ribbit Capital, Infinite Capital, Bedrock Capital, and Sequoia Capital all doubled down in the second tranche, the same group that led the June round. “Mo

Ground A, a German defence tech company, led by Dr. Tobias Brune, Daniel Hariri, Roland Spiegelhalder, and the team, has closed a pre-seed financing round of more than EUR 9 million in June, led by Vsquared Ventures with participation from Quantum Systems, as well as venture capital investors including GRIF, Robin Capital, ABACON, Leblon Capital and OVNI Capital. Also on board at Ground A are experienced entrepreneurs and investors from the European defence and software indus

Diffraqtion, an MIT and University of Maryland spinout building quantum camera platforms for defense and space sensing, led by Johannes Galatsanos, Christine Yi-Ting Wang, Saikat Guha, and the team, announced strategic investments from Lockheed Martin Ventures and Presidio Ventures, the venture arm of Sumitomo Corporation, bringing total funding to over $10M. Following strong investor interest, Diffraqtion elected to cap its pre-seed round, which also includes SBI US Gateway

Castelion, restoring America’s ability to field advanced weapons at speed and scale, led by Bryon Hargis, Sean Pitt, and Andrew Kreitz, has announced a $1 billion Series C fundraise to accelerate the scaled production of Blackbeard, Castelion’s first low-cost, mass-producible hypersonic strike missile, while expanding the company’s product portfolio to longer-range strike weapons and defensive systems. The Series C round is a combination of $800 million in equity financing an

Terra Industries, protecting Africa’sCritical Infrastructure, led by Nathan Nwachuku and Maxwell Maduka, has raised an additional $18 million. The strategic funding closes its seed round at $52 million. Existing investors 8VC, Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital, and SV Angel participated, alongside new investor Norleo Space Investments and angel investor Grant Gordon. Terra will use the funding to open its first international office in London, expand manufacturing c

Heaviside Industries, a builder of multi-domain precision munitions platforms, announced a strategic partnership with Nammo, a global leader in ammunition, alongside a $60 million Series B financing. Felicis led the round with significant participation from Hedosophia and additional participation from Menlo Ventures, Cantos, Flume Ventures, Qstar Capital, Friends & Family Capital, Anorak Ventures, MVP Ventures, and others. Raised three months after the company emerged from st

Neros, building unmanned superiority at scale led by Soren Monroe-Anderson and Olaf Hichwa, has raised $250M Series C at a post-money valuation of $2.5B, co-led by Sequoia Capital and American Strategic Technology Fund (ASTF), with participation by Interlagos, Valor Equity Partners, Allen & Company, Thiel Capital, Spark Capital, and Dylan Field. The funding will accelerate production of Neros’ new drone programs, including Archer AI, an autonomous FPV platform, and Bandit, a

Cambridge Aerospace, the air defence company led by Steven Barrett, Chris Sylvan, and Junaid Hussain, announced the closure of its Series C round with $300M dollars of investment at a $3.4B valuation, led by DFJ Growth and supported by Lux, Accel, Lakestar, Never Lift, Ora Global, and Elad Gil & Co. The financing will support Cambridge Aerospace’s continued growth by expanding manufacturing capacity to meet existing and new contracts, while advancing current products and deve

Hadrian, the advanced manufacturing company building highly automated factories for America, led by Chris Power and the team, has announced $1.37 billion in new equity financing co-led by WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, Valor Equity Partners, 137 Ventures, and Baillie Gifford. JPMorganChase's Strategic Investment Group joined as anchor co-lead, investing through the firm's Security and Resiliency Initiative, a program dedicated to strengthening the ind

Array Labs, designing, building, and operating the world’s most advanced radar satellites, led by Andrew Peterson and Jose Isaac Robledo, has raised $21 million in an oversubscribed strategic investment round, anchored by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, one of Japan's largest defense and aerospace companies, with continued participation from Catapult Ventures, Kompas VC, and Y Combinator. As part of the financing, Array Labs and Mitsubishi Electric have entered into a partne

Singularity, the defence tech startup building a safer world, led by Jack Oswald and the team, has emerged from stealth with an $80M Series A led by Khosla Ventures and Felicis, a $400M valuation, and a mission to deploy “low-cost air defence systems at scale.” Seed investors AE Ventures and NEA participated in the round, alongside Harpoon, Menlo Ventures, New Vista, Decisive Point, Y Combinator, Long Journey, and others. Like many next-generation defense startups, Singularit

Helsing, providing Artificial Intelligence to protect its democracies, led by Dr. Gundbert Scherf, Niklas Köhler, and Torsten Reil, has raised $1.8bn in a Series E, valuing the company at US$18bn. New and existing investors participated in the round, including Dragoneer Investment Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Disruptive, Iconiq, Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, JPMorgan Chase, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), General Catalyst, Plural,

Kraken Technology, a British-founded maritime defence company led by Mal Crease and the team, has announced the closure of its Series B funding round led by DTCP and supported by other British and European backers, including the British Business Bank, NATO Innovation Fund (NIF), Rheinmetall, Inocea Group, as well as Venture Capital (VC) firms HICO, Thesiger Capital Group, BOKA Capital, Supernova Invest and Hakluyt Capital. Early investors in the company such as NIF, the UK’s

Quantum Systems, building the unmanned future, led by Florian Seibel, Sven Kruck, and Dave Sharpin, has announced the signing of its $1.2 billion Series D financing round, valuing the company at ~ $8 billion on a post-money basis. The round was co-led by Blackstone, Noteus, Airbus and Advent, and supported by a high-calibre syndicate of crossover and long-term institutional investors including BOND, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Wellington Management, A.P. Moller H

Six Robotics, an Oslo-based company developing swarm autonomy as a force multiplier, led by Christian Fredrik Eggesbø, Mathias Nedrebø, Cecilie Hammer, Ole Jørgen Seeland, Oscar Heyden, and Kristine Angeltvedt, has raised a €12 million equity financing round led by DTCP, with participation from EIFO (Export and Investment Fund of Denmark) and Scale Capital, alongside other private investors. The funding will accelerate product development, expand customer deployments across E

STARK, delivering the defence systems that Europe and NATO need now, led by Uwe Horstmann and the team, has announced a €500 million financing round to accelerate defence research, development, and manufacturing across Europe. The financing brings together investors from across the defence, technology, and institutional finance sectors, including Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, the NATO Innovation Fund, Project A, Air Street Capital, 201 Ventures, Advent, and Döpfner Capital.

Comand AI, building an AI-native command for defense and security operations, led by Loïc Mougeolle, Marie I., Quentin Le Pape, and Paul Mustière, has announced a €32 million Series A funding round at Eurosatory, led by Blossom Capital, with strategic investment from Saab, and with Expeditions renewing its participation in the company. The round will support the expansion of Comand AI’s AI-native command-and-control platform, Prevail, across NATO markets and into new operatio

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will purchase more than 200 Extended Range Sentry Towers (XRST) from Anduril to expand autonomous situational awareness across a much larger portion of the Southwest Border. The $363 million contract builds on more than seven years of collaboration between Anduril Industries and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, during which Anduril has delivered and supported hundreds of autonomous systems. Scaling Autonomous Border Surveillance. B