While still a teenager, Ethan Thornton started Mach Industries, which has gained the financial backing of Sequoia Capital and Bedrock Capital.
Thornton is riding a wave toward nimbler, tech-driven war-fighting tools for the 21st century, though he says the path ahead for his defense startup will be “very hard.”
Thornton formed his current company in Austin, Texas last year and then, reversing a pattern of OC companies heading to Texas, he moved it to Orange County.
“I’m very, very happy about our success thus far,” he told the Business Journal in May.
Miniature Fighter
Mach Industries is concentrating on two main products: a drone-like miniature fighter called Viper and “a high-altitude weapons platform.”
One of his goals is to “replace gunpowder” with extremely cheap and abundant hydrogen.
“If successful, hydrogen-powered munitions would be far cheaper and more efficient,” investor website 24/7 Wall Street said in a May article listing Mach Industries among five different defense startup companies worth watching.
Thornton and about 50 colleagues are working out of their new 115,000-square-foot industrial building in Surf City.
Mach Industries sported a $335 million valuation following a Series A funding round of $79 million last year that was led by Bedrock Capital of Austin. The company had previously received $5.7 million in financing led by Sequoia Capital.
Thornton said he’s not facing any discrimination based on his young age, neither from investors nor customers.
“The customer just cares about the technology,” he says.
Thornton grew up in West Texas. He dropped out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) after his first semester and started his company while still a teenager.
One part of Mach’s program is the use of hydrogen-powered platforms for the military, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), weapons and aerial protection devices.
“This versatile fuel can be easily manufactured in the field using readily available resources, such as electricity or aluminum and water,” Menlo Park-based Sequoia Capital said at the time its funding in Mach Industries was announced.
While Mach Industries had about 50 employees as of May, “we’ll probably end the year at about 100,” Thornton said.
He says a predecessor firm was incorporated in September 2022, and that evolved into the currently named Mach Industries.
Forbes Criticism
There has been outside skepticism about the firm’s prospects.
“Investors gave a teenager $85 million to build hydrogen weapons. It’s not going well,” said Forbes magazine earlier this year.
Forbes added: “Ethan Thornton’s vision for Mach Industries wooed blue-chip investors Sequoia and Bedrock Capital, but he has struggled to execute, hamstrung by technical challenges, safety hazards and a cavalier approach to leadership.”
Thornton responded to the Forbes article by telling the Business Journal that the article failed to give a fair picture of the work his company is doing.
Mach Industries was looking for 20 new hires as of Aug. 5. The positions include composites engineer, quality engineer, aerospace structures engineer and drone engineer.
