Defence startup Mach Industries has raised US$5.7 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital, the first-ever defence tech investment in the venture capital giant's history, the two companies said.
"Defence technology is central to our safety. However, ageing defence systems and ailing supply chains mean the US has a big opportunity to innovate in service of national security," Shaun Maguire, partner at Sequoia, who led the deal, told Reuters via email. Founded by MIT dropout and Thiel Fellow Ethan Thornton in 2022, Mach Industries focuses on building a hardware solution using field-sourced hydrogen creation and combustion techniques. It is working to develop a weapon system that uses the chemical reaction of oxygen and hydrogen to create a powerful explosion that could fuel unmanned aerial vehicles and aerial protection devices.