Mach Industries

Mach Industries builds low-cost strike weapons designed to be launched from anywhere and produced in volume. Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Huntington Beach, California, it became a defence-tech standout when it secured the first defence investment by Sequoia Capital . Its founder and chief executive, Ethan Thornton, left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to start the company, which by mid-2025 employed around 140 people.

Its flagship system, Viper, is a turbojet-powered vertical-takeoff one-way-attack drone that needs no runway or launcher and is built for GPS- and communications-denied frontline use — Thornton has described it as a miniature fighter jet that two people can launch. The wider catalogue includes Glide, a high-altitude glide munition for low-cost precision strike; Stratos, a stratospheric pseudo-satellite carrying communications, sensors and effects; and Dart, a kinetic interceptor for counter-drone work. The company traces its origins to Thornton’s thesis that field-generated hydrogen could power tactical platforms, and it manufactures its own propulsion and energetics in-house.

The defence relationship runs through the platform. Under a contract from the Army Applications Laboratory awarded in the third quarter of 2024 — the “Strategic Strike” programme — Viper completed Army-supervised vertical-takeoff and cruise flight tests in early 2025, demonstrating roughly 290 kilometres of range. The company says it works with the Army, Air Force and US Special Operations Command, and it is building toward high-volume output at “Forge 1,” a 115,000-square-foot factory in Huntington Beach.

Funding has tracked that ambition. A $5.7 million seed in June 2023 led by Sequoia was followed by a $79 million Series A led by Bedrock Capital, and in June 2025 a $100 million Series B co-led by Khosla Ventures and Bedrock, with Sequoia participating, valued the company at about $470 million and took total funding to roughly $185 million. The approach places Mach alongside Anduril and Shield AI among the venture-backed firms reshaping how the United States buys munitions.