Defense company Mach Industries is stepping up production and strengthening ties with the Pentagon, boosted by a $300 million cash infusion that\u2019s raised the company\u2019s valuation to $1.8 billion.<\/p>\n
The Huntington Beach-based company, led by 22-year-old Ethan Thornton, calls itself \u201cAmerica\u2019s newest defense unicorn\u201d \u2013 signifying a startup worth more than $1 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work closely with our government partners and are grateful for the opportunity to support important national security missions,\u201d Thornton told the Business Journal on June 2 shortly after the new funding was announced.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe\u2019ve continued to see strong customer demand and growth across our programs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The latest capital raise is another sign that Orange County is again becoming a hotbed for military defense spending. Anduril Industries raised $5 billion in May, more than doubling the Costa Mesa-based company\u2019s valuation to $61 billion. Since Karman Space & Defense, also in Huntington Beach, went public a year ago, its valuation has almost doubled to $6.9 billion.<\/p>\n
Another up-and-coming company is Irvine-based Dzyne, a maker of drones and counter-drone systems.<\/p>\n
Thornton started Mach Industries as a teenager in 2023 to develop and manufacture airborne weapons, including the Viper attack drone.<\/p>\n
Mach has also been developing various other weapons including the Pike drone and the Glide attack glider.<\/p>\n
Less than a year ago, Mach had a valuation of $470 million.<\/p>\n
Mach said the latest raise will expand its manufacturing and propulsion development and deepen partnerships with U.S. defense customers, including the Army, Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), as well as allied governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s Series C funding is a powerful accelerator for our mission,\u201d Thornton said in a June 2 statement. \u201cWe\u2019re delivering advanced unmanned systems at the pace the threat environment demands, and we\u2019re grateful to our investors for believing in our ability to strengthen American and allied superiority on the battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s Golden Dome Plan<\/p>\n
The work will also involve a piece of President Trump\u2019s proposed missile defense network, known as Golden Dome.<\/p>\n
The company currently has 350 employees. Mach had more than 70 open positions posted on its website as of May 20, ranging from field drone technician to flight software engineer and senior legal counsel.<\/p>\n
Thornton said Mach has grown its workforce to more than five times its size a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe plan to continue investing in exceptional engineering talent alongside the skilled manufacturing workforce needed to support increasing production demand across our programs,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The new capital will accelerate execution of existing government contracts, talent acquisition, product development and the expansion of Forge, the company\u2019s flexible manufacturing network.<\/p>\n
Tech-Focused Investors<\/p>\n
Mach enjoys backing from many of the leading funds in the defense and tech industry.<\/p>\n
The $300 million round was led by tech-focused funds Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cEthan and the Mach team are building with urgency, increasingly controlling their supply chain, and refusing to wait for incumbents to catch up. They combine technical depth, execution speed, and a strong sense of duty to country. We\u2019re proud to co-lead this Series C as they build a defining company,\u201d said Micky Malka, founder of Ribbit Capital.<\/p>\n
The new investors join longstanding backers including Bedrock Capital, Sequoia Capital and Khosla Ventures, a Silicon Valley investor group that has supported Mach Industries across multiple stages of its growth. Khosla also backs Long Beach-based Rocket Lab.<\/p>\n
$50M Purchase in Victorville<\/p>\n
News of the latest financing raise came less than a month after the company announced its $50 million purchase of rocket propulsion firm Exquadrum in Victorville.<\/p>\n
Mach Industries acquired Exquadrum, and rebranded it as Mach Energetics. The acquisition adds energetics systems, engineering talent, manufacturing infrastructure and testing facilities intended to further vertically integrated production and accelerate system delivery.<\/p>\n
The acquisition is expected to enhance testing throughput and enable faster iteration across platforms, advancing the company\u2019s long-term strategy of building a more independent, resilient and vertically integrated manufacturing, development and testing base.<\/p>\n
What Mach Industries is Developing<\/p>\n
Mach Industries operates five active vehicle programs: Viper, a jet-powered vertical take-off, one way aircraft; Glide, a high-altitude attack glider; Stratos, an airborne surveillance platform; Dart, a low-cost counter-drone interceptor; and Pike, a long-range attack aircraft built for large-scale deployment.<\/p>\n
In addition, Mach said it was selected by the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Innovation Unit to develop the Navy\u2019s new runway-independent strike aircraft, and the effort is currently in its early phases.\u00a0Mach was selected for the sixth vehicle after the Series C funding round closed<\/p>\n
\u201cThe future of defense is dynamic, and we believe it is important to remain responsive to evolving threats and operational needs. We will continue to evaluate opportunities to develop and field new capabilities where we believe they can provide meaningful advantages to the warfighter and help ensure our forces stay ahead of emerging adversaries,\u201d founder and CEO Ethan Thornton told the Business Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defense company Mach Industries is stepping up production and strengthening ties with the Pentagon, boosted by a $300…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-351786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}