Two-year-old defense tech Mach Industries confirms $100M raise led by Khosla, Bedrock

Summary

Rising-star defense tech Mach Industries has announced a new $100 million round of funding at a $470 million valuation. TechCrunch first reported that this deal was in the works last month. New investor Keith Rabois from Khosla Ventures joins existing investor Geoff Lewis of Bedrock Capital to lead the round. Existing investor Sequoia also participated. The fresh funding brings the startup’s total raised to about $185 million to date. The round represents a modest step up from the company’s previous valuation. When Mach announced its Series A funding in October 2023, investors assigned the company a $335 million post-money valuation. This means the latest round’s $470 million post-money to pre-money valuation is essentially flat, representing just $35 million in additional value over the past year and a half. Mach Industries’ rise in the defense tech world has been nothing short of meteoric, even if its latest funding round suggests investor enthusiasm is cautious. It was founded in 2023 by then 19-year-old CEO Ethan Thornton, who dropped out of MIT to work full time on the company. In June 2023, he landed Sequoia’s Stephanie Zhan and Shaun Maguire as investors who led Mach’s $5.7 million seed round. Geoff Lewis, founder of Bedrock Capital, led Mach’s $79 million Series A a few months later. Within the last year, Mach has grown from about 20 employees to 140, Thornton tells TechCrunch. The startup has designed three weapons systems: a super light jet-powered vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle called Viper that requires no runway; a high-altitude glider plane that can strike targets from miles away at the edge of the atmosphere, named Glide; and Stratos an in-air satellite with sensors and communication capabilities that can operate at extreme altitudes. The company has also secured significant contracts and infrastructure investments. Earlier this year, Mach was selected by the Army Applications Laboratory to develop a vertical takeoff precision cr...