Post #334

Hermeus Hits $1B Valuation on Defense Bet Hermeus just raised $350M Series C, hitting $1B valuation. Total capital: $566M. What they're building: • Unmanned hypersonic aircraft (Mach 3 target) • Turbine-based combined cycle engines • F-16-scale platforms for defense payloads How they got here: • Founded 2018, bootstrapped early iterations • First subsonic flight (May 2025) → Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 success • Khosla Ventures led; RTX Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Founders Fund backed • Shifted from prototyping to scaled manufacturing (new HQ: El Segundo) Why it matters: Speed wins in defense. Hermeus compressed 5-10 year aerospace timelines to 18 months. Founders: if you're building hardware, this is the playbook—rapid iteration, clear customer (DoD), capital efficiency. https://parsers.vc/news/260412-hermeus-secures-350-million--accelerates/ #DefenseTech#HardwareStartups