Defense tech darling Mach Industries hits $1.8B valuation, a 4x jump in a year

Mach Industries, the three-year-old defence tech startup tally by 22-year-old laminitis and CEO Ethan Thornton, has raised a $300 cardinal Series C astatine a $1.8 cardinal valuation, the institution announced connected Monday.

The rise astir quadruples the valuation of the institution successful a year. In June 2025, Mach raised $100 cardinal astatine a $470 cardinal valuation. It has present raised astir $485 cardinal full from investors, including Bedrock Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Khosla Ventures.

The circular was led by deep-tech money Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital, known for fintech and lately successful blistery deals everyplace — from AI coding startups similar Cognition to neoclouds similar Crusoe.

Since gathering autonomous weapons is simply a capital-intensive industry, Thornton began actively fundraising a mates of months ago, helium told TechCrunch, and rapidly discovered that the circular would beryllium fashionable with investors.

“We went retired to rise 200 [million dollars] and we were highly oversubscribed astatine 200 and blessed with the price, truthful we decided to propulsion up to 300. We’re inactive oversubscribed astatine the 300 mark,” Thornton said of the fundraising efforts.

Founded successful 2023, the maturation of Mach has been a chaotic thrust for Thornton, who famously dropped retired of MIT astatine 19 to commencement the company. VC enthusiasm is precocious for a fewer reasons. Other than AI, defence tech is simply a blistery country for concern close present arsenic newfangled autonomous weapons and drone defence systems, beryllium themselves successful conflict successful Ukraine.

Mach has besides go prolific successful its abbreviated time. The Huntington Beach, California-based institution present has 5 autonomous vehicles successful development: Viper, a jet-powered vertical takeoff vehicle; Glide, a high-altitude glider susceptible of launching weapons; Stratos, an airborne surveillance platform; Dart, a low-cost counter-drone interceptor; and Pike, intended for launching long-range munitions. Production is expected to statesman adjacent twelvemonth connected astatine slightest 3 of these systems, the institution says.

Plus, conscionable this week, it won a Department of Defense declaration to make a new, sixth conveyance that the startup has ne'er discussed publicly, Thornton tells TechCrunch. The declaration is from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to make the Navy’s caller “runway-independent onslaught aircraft,” arsenic the startup describes it.

This volition beryllium for a precise ample aircraft, Thornton says, that could person applications successful the commercialized industry, too.

It has besides grown from astir a twelve employees successful its archetypal twelvemonth to astir 350 employees today, has a 115,000-square-foot manufacturing installation successful Huntington Beach, and plan and accumulation facilities successful a fig of different locations.

“So by the extremity of this year, successful 2026, we volition person brought connected 4 caller accumulation facilities,” Thornton said.

But different crushed VCs wrote large checks is that past month, Mach orchestrated an manufacture coup (excuse the pun) erstwhile it acquired coagulated rocket centrifugal (SRM) startup Exquadrum successful a $50 cardinal cash-and-equity deal, as TechCrunch antecedently reported. It bushed retired upwards of 8 different imaginable buyers, the startup said.

There’s an acute shortage of SRMs arsenic drones make unprecedented request successful a marketplace controlled by 2 of the large premier defence contractors, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman. The pb times for purchasing tin agelong years.

With this buy, Mach controls its ain destiny for rocket motors and besides launched a caller commercialized business, Mach Energetics, to merchantability the engines. While Thornton declined to stock revenue, helium said the existent premix is 50/50 betwixt selling to the authorities and selling to different companies.

Thornton remembers a infinitesimal past twelvemonth erstwhile each the accelerated maturation of the institution truly deed him. Two years ago, the all-hands meetings were held successful the league country with “like 12 people,” helium said. “At our two-year enactment we had similar 200 positive chairs and it was standing-room only.”

Still, helium said, he’s astir arrogant of the velocity of merchandise development. That is, aft all, the full crushed for his institution and for the defence tech industry. The thought with these startups, backed by tech VCs, is to bring faster, much affordable products to the subject and related commercialized uses, arsenic opposed to the expensive, bespoke offerings that bequest premier defence contractors offer.

“Traditionally, it’s 4 years to physique a pitchy engine. That’s astir the fastest you tin find successful this space. And we went from nary squad to gathering a squad to a pitchy motor firing successful astir 8 months,” Thornton said.