Mach Industries Raises $300M at $1.8B Valuation

True to its name, Mach Industries is moving speedy quick, and investors are lining up to add fuel to the fire. A little more than a week after announcing the $50M acquisition of propulsion system and solid rocket motor-maker Exquadrum, the Huntington Beach startup announced late yesterday that it’s closed a $300M Series C co-led by Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital. The round brings Mach’s valuation to a cool $1.8B, wayyy up from $470M after its $100M Series B a year ago. Another day, another defense tech unicorn, but not many others are run by a 22-year-old college dropout. Good thing he can legally pop some champagne this time around. Mach speed: If you’ve been reading Tectonic, Mach probably rings a bell. The startup—founded in 2022—has made a big splash with a wide range of boomy and zoomy tech. That includes: They also have a new-age “flexible factory” called Forge (think a defense manufacturing WeWork) and, through the addition of Exquadrum, a new energetics unit (rebranded as Mach Energetics) to provide in-house motors and propulsion systems for Mach’s tech and other customers. Young money: Mach’s range of products—many in line with tech in high demand from the US military—and their rapid growth had investors lining up to get involved. Scale up: With the $300M in fresh capital, Thornton has his eyes on boosting Mach’s headcount, speeding up the “execution of existing government contracts,” accelerating product development and production “across all platforms,” and expanding Forge. High flyer: The Series C has nearly quadrupled Mach’s valuation in less than a year, launching the company into unicorn land. And according to the startup, that’s not just based on ecosystem-wide hype around defense tech (though that never hurts). “At a high level, the increase reflects continued progress across the business,” the company said. “We’ve built a strong contract pipeline, advanced the technical maturity of our three foundational platforms, introduced two new solutions addressing critical defense needs, and continued to grow the team, infrastructure, and capabilities required to execute.” “Taken together, those developments position the company very differently than it was at the time of the previous round,” they added.