Mach Industries, a two-year-old defense startup founded by a then 19-year-old college dropout, has added $100 million to its funding in the race to upgrade airborne warfighting.
Mach will use the Series B financing to expand its unmanned military aircraft production and build advanced jet propulsion systems. Mach, which began in 2023, has raised about $185 million to date.
The investment round signals a growing interest in defense startups by Silicon Valley investors, who in past years have been disdainful of the industry. Costa Mesa-based Anduril Industries, a defense startup founded in 2017, is considered one of the nation’s hottest startups with a valuation that has soared to $30.5 billion.
Mach Industries’ latest financing round was led by Khosla Ventures and Bedrock Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital and existing investors.
San Francisco-based Bedrock, which previously backed the company at the seed stage and led its Series A, was founded by Geoff Lewis, who led the first financing round in Lyft.
Sequoia Capital is famous for early investments in Apple, Google and Nvidia. Khosla Ventures was founded by Vinod Khosla, the founding CEO of Sun Microsystems in 1982.
“Mach has developed a fundamentally new way to deliver tactical unmanned capabilities–faster, cheaper, and with fewer constraints than traditional defense players,” Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures said in a statement. “Their model is purpose-built for the realities of modern conflict.”
The Three Systems
Huntington Beach-based Mach Industries is making three main systems for armed services use:
– Viper, a jet-powered vertical takeoff cruise missile. Viper has a range of 180 miles and can carry a more than 22-pound warhead. It is designed to be launched from beyond enemy radar range, reducing the possibility of detection. The Army Applications Laboratory awarded Mach a contract to develop the unmanned weapon earlier this year.
– A high-altitude glider plane named Glide that can strike targets from miles away.
n Stratos, a giant balloon equipped with sensors and communication capabilities that can operate at extreme altitudes for several months.
Mach Industries said it is also developing “micro-jet engines” to propel unmanned military aircraft.
MIT Dropout, Founder
The company was founded by MIT-dropout Ethan Thornton in 2023 when he was 19 years old.
“Mach Industries exists to enhance national readiness and preserve America’s strategic edge,” Thornton, who is the CEO, said in the statement. “Global security depends on America’s ability to create asymmetric unmanned capability. That means scaling production, building new facilities and fielding systems that deter conflict.”
The company is working in a 115,000-square foot facility in Huntington Beach.
Mach’s goal is to create weapons with “the ability to carry out strikes at very long ranges,” Thornton told the website TechCrunch, which said the startup’s estimated value is $470 million.
Calling itself “a new industrial base for the unmanned era of American defense,” Mach is competing in a crowded field of defense newcomers, including Orange County.
In neighboring Costa Mesa, Palmer Luckey’s Anduril Industries is banking heavily on various drones, while Dzyne Technologies is a military drone maker with its main manufacturing site in Irvine.
The exact role that drones and other unmanned aircraft will play in wartime is still being defined; early reports suggest they have been used successfully in Ukraine and Iran war zones.
However, the U.S. B-2 bomber attacks earlier this month against Iranian nuclear facilities demonstrate that massive bombs and sleek warplanes such as the F-35 fighter jets will still carry the biggest military load for now.
High-Profile Investors
Mach Industries will also use the money to build its flagship factory, called Forge, in Huntington Beach.
The defense company works with customers across the U.S. Department of Defense–including the Army, Air Force, and SOCOM–as well as allied governments.
Mach sees a broad role in settling global conflicts.
“By vertically integrating weapons, propulsion and manufacturing, Mach delivers the speed, adaptability and resilience required to preserve the allied edge in an increasingly contested world,” the company says.
Mach said it has also secured significant contracts and infrastructure investments.
In March, Mach said it will make military drones with Heven Drones, a Florida-based company with an R&D center in Israel.
Mach Industries Aims to Win Battle Against China’s Drones
The way CEO Ethan Thornton sees it, his Mach Industries may be the last barrier against totalitarianism.
A post on the company’s website describes how “China is winning” the military race and Mach is there to claw back terrain. Mach Industries says its goals include breaking the dominance of Chinese production of drones and other unmanned warfighting aircraft.
“To produce, we are building verticalized and decentralized manufacturing. When supply chains collapse, Mach will endure,” the company says.
“Because we don’t just fight to win the next war. We fight to guarantee perpetual western strength.”
The end of Mach’s sobering message:
“Mach must forge the unmanned future, or a totalitarian state will.”
