Mach Industries, a three-year-old defense technology startup run by 22-year-old founder and CEO Ethan Thornton, has raised $300 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $1.8 billion, the company announced Monday.
The increase nearly quadruples the company’s valuation in one year. In June 2025, Mach raised $100 million at a valuation of $470 million. Other investors include Bedrock Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Khosla Ventures.
The round was led by deep tech funds Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital, which are known for fintech and have recently made high-profile deals in everything from AI coding startups like Cognition to neo-clouds like Crusoe.
Manufacturing autonomous weapons is a capital-intensive industry, so Thornton told TechCrunch that he began actively raising money several months ago and quickly realized the round would be popular with investors.
“We went out to raise $200. [million dollars] “And we were so oversubscribed at 200 and we were happy with the price that we decided to go up to 300. We’re still oversubscribed at the 300 level,” Thornton said of the fundraiser.
Founded in 2023, Mach and its growth has been a daunting journey for Thornton, who famously dropped out of MIT at age 19 to start the company. There are several reasons why VC enthusiasm is growing. Beyond AI, defense technology is currently a hot area for investment, as new autonomous weapons and drone defense systems prove themselves in the fight in Ukraine.
Mach also became prolific in a short period of time. The Huntington Beach, California-based company is currently developing five self-driving cars. Glide, a high-altitude glider that can fire weapons. Stratos, an aerial surveillance platform. Dart, a low-cost anti-drone interceptor. The pike is intended for firing long-range weapons. The company says at least three of these systems will go into production next year.
Additionally, just this week, the company won a Pentagon contract to build a new sixth vehicle, which it had not previously discussed publicly, Thornton told TechCrunch. The contract comes from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which the startup describes as developing the Navy’s new “runway-independent attack aircraft.”
This is for very large aircraft, and could also have applications in commercial industry, Thornton said.
Additionally, the company has grown from approximately 12 employees in its first year to approximately 350 employees and has a 115,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Huntington Beach and design and production facilities in numerous other locations.
“So by the end of this year, by 2026, we will have four new production facilities,” Thornton said.
But another reason VCs wrote big checks is that Mach orchestrated an industry coup (excuse the pun) last month when it acquired solid rocket motor (SRM) startup Exquadrum in a $50 million cash-and-stock deal, as TechCrunch previously reported. The startup said it beat eight other potential buyers.
There is a critical shortage of SRMs as drones create unprecedented demand in a market dominated by two major defense contractors, Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman. Lead times to purchase can span years.
With this acquisition, Mach took control of the rocket motor’s own destiny and launched a new commercial business, Mach Energetics, to sell the engines. Thornton declined to share the revenue, but said the current structure is 50-50 between sales to the government and sales to other companies.
Thornton remembers a moment last year when he was truly struck by the company’s rapid growth. Two years ago, an all-hands meeting was held in a conference room with “about 12 people,” he said. “At our first party in two years, we had over 200 chairs and it was standing room only.”
Still, he says he’s most proud of the speed of product development. After all, that’s the whole reason for his company and the defense technology industry. The idea of these technology venture capital-backed startups is to provide faster, more affordable products for military and related commercial applications, as opposed to the expensive, bespoke products offered by traditional flagship defense contractors.
“Traditionally, it takes four years to build a jet engine, which is the fastest time you can find in this field. And we went from building a team from none to having one and firing up a jet engine in about eight months,” Thornton said.
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