Sequoia’s investment in a technology that seeks to use hydrogen production on the battlefield is a hint of the newest enthusiasm among Silicon Valley financiers for supporting and collaborating with the Department of Defence on innovations that enhance American national security.
According to the two firms, defence startup Mach Industries has raised $5.7 million in a seed round led by Sequoia Capital, marking the first-ever investment in defence technology in the company’s history.
Sequoia’s investment in a technology that seeks to use hydrogen production on the battlefield is a hint of the newest enthusiasm among Silicon Valley financiers for supporting and collaborating with the Department of Defence on innovations that enhance American national security.
According to Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia who co-led the purchase with partner Stephanie Zhan, “There is a technology transition happening, and recent events like the war in Ukraine have highlighted the gap in current defence systems.”
In order to enhance American defence technology and create a new generation of military systems, a significant modernization project is currently in progress.
Ethan Thornton, a former Thiel Fellow and MIT dropout, founded Mach Industries in 2022 with the goal of developing gear that leverages locally available methods for producing hydrogen and igniting it. It is developing a weapon system that can power unmanned aerial vehicles and aerial defence equipment with a tremendous explosion produced by the chemical reaction between oxygen and hydrogen.
With its main office in Austin, Texas, According to Mach, the money would be utilised for facility expansion, employing people, and product development.
“We have constructed facilities in Austin and Boston, and we are currently working towards production. In a phone conversation with Reuters, Thornton stated that the company already collaborates on research with the Pentagon and added, “We are looking to have deployed systems within the next year.”
According to PitchBook research, the U.S. government’s increasing need for cutting-edge technologies to satisfy its national security objectives will fuel growth in the defence technology market which is anticipated to reach $184.7 billion by 2027.
Due to concerns about profitability and reputation over how the technology will be used, Silicon Valley investors have been hesitant to invest in defence technology for a long.
But as the value of defence technology in preserving national security has grown, venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund have started speaking out in favour of supporting defence technology startups like Anduril and Palantir.
According to PitchBook data, venture capital companies invested $34.3 billion in businesses developing defence technologies in 2022, more than double their investment in 2019.
Sequoia Capital is seeking to support entrepreneurs with larger defence applications. Sequoia Capital recently stated that it has severed relations with its China and India investment franchise to concentrate on investing in software firms in the U.S. and Europe.
Many of the developments in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and space-based capabilities that we are witnessing now, among other things, will influence defence technology in the future, according to Sequoia’s Maguire.
