Mach Industries Raises $300 Million Series C at $1.8 Billion Valuation, Nearly Quadrupling Worth in One Year

Mach Industries, a three-year-old defense technology startup based in Huntington Beach, California, has closed a $300 million Series C funding round at a $1.8 billion valuation, nearly four times the $470 million valuation the company carried when it raised $100 million in June 2025.

The round was led by Infinite Capital, a deep technology fund, and Ribbit Capital, an investor better known for fintech that has recently participated in a range of high-profile deals. Bedrock Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Khosla Ventures also participated.

Ethan Thornton, the company's 22-year-old founder and chief executive, said investor appetite exceeded expectations. "We went out to raise 200 [million dollars] and we were extremely oversubscribed at 200 and happy with the price, so we decided to push up to 300. We're still oversubscribed at the 300 mark," Thornton told TechCrunch.

Thornton famously left MIT at 19 to found the company in 2023. Mach has since grown from roughly a dozen employees in its first year to approximately 350 today, and operates a 115,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Huntington Beach alongside design and production facilities in several other locations. The company says it expects to open four additional production facilities by the end of 2026.

The startup currently has five autonomous vehicles in development: Viper, a jet-powered vertical takeoff vehicle; Glide, a high-altitude glider capable of launching weapons; Stratos, an airborne surveillance platform; Dart, a low-cost counter-drone interceptor; and Pike, intended for launching long-range munitions. Production on at least three of those systems is expected to begin next year, the company said.

This week, Mach also disclosed a new contract from the Defense Innovation Unit to develop what Thornton described as the Navy's "runway-independent strike aircraft" — a sixth vehicle the startup had not previously discussed publicly. Thornton said the aircraft would be large and could have commercial applications as well.

Adding to investor confidence, Mach last month acquired Exquadrum, a solid rocket motor startup, in a $50 million cash-and-equity deal, outcompeting more than eight other potential buyers. Solid rocket motors are in acute short supply as drone demand strains a market long dominated by Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman, where lead times for purchases can stretch years. The acquisition gave Mach control over its own rocket motor supply and led to the launch of a commercial subsidiary, Mach Energetics, to sell the engines externally. Thornton said the current revenue mix is split evenly between government sales and sales to other companies, though he declined to disclose specific revenue figures.

Speed of development remains central to Mach's pitch to investors and to the Pentagon. "Traditionally, it's four years to build a jet engine. That's about the fastest you can find in this space. And we went from no team to building a team to a jet engine firing in about eight months," Thornton said.

That pitch lands at a moment when defense technology is drawing significant venture capital attention, reinforcing a broader shift in how the U.S. military and its investor community are approaching autonomous weapons and drone defense systems — particularly as those technologies have demonstrated results in conflicts such as the war in Ukraine.

With its expanded manufacturing footprint, a growing vehicle portfolio, a new Pentagon contract, and control of a critical propulsion supply chain, Mach enters the second half of 2026 as one of the more closely watched names in the defense startup landscape. How quickly it can move from development to full-scale production will determine whether its valuation trajectory continues.

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