Until recently, venture capitalists generally kept their distance from defense startups. Investments in this field were once considered morally controversial, and the process of securing government contracts was too lengthy and full of uncertainties to be worthwhile for venture capital.
However, this view quickly changed after the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran began to deplete the U.S. military's missile stockpiles. Today, startups that can prove their ability to manufacture equipment quickly and at low cost indeed have a chance to secure Pentagon contracts in a shorter time frame.
As this so-called defense technology boom, which is said to have begun with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, enters its fourth year, a veteran Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Benchmark, is making its first bet on a pure defense startup.
Benchmark is leading the $25 million seed financing round for Furientis. Furientis is a startup dedicated to the mass production of interceptor missiles. The company was established just one year ago, and its name means "angry" in Latin. According to a person familiar with the company, Furientis has already secured a funded contract from the Pentagon for the manufacture of medium-range interceptors. The company is valued at $125 million.
This round of seed financing by Furientis follows its $5 million pre-seed financing announcement in May this year.
Benchmark General Partner Chetan Puttagunta told TechCrunch: "The results they achieved with just one round of pre-seed financing are truly remarkable. They managed to create a prototype using only 5 million dollars. By the time we invested, they had already successfully completed the launch tests."
This efficiency stands in sharp contrast to the slow and costly development models of traditional defense giants. What has driven this startup to move forward rapidly is the rich experience of its co-founders in aerospace and defense engineering. Brody Franzen once served as deputy chief engineer at Virgin Galactic, before joining the hypersonic missile startup Castelion valued at $13 billion; Aris Simsarian was previously responsible for rocket engine testing at Virgin Orbit.
Franzen told TechCrunch, that the two of them founded Furientis because they realized that the U.S. military was facing a severe shortage of “high-end” missiles, and each of these missiles costs about 3 million dollars, making it difficult to deal with the threat of cheaper adversaries.
According to Franzen, the US Navy receives only 300 to 500 interceptors per year, while China claims that its monthly production of anti-ship cruise missiles can reach 3,000.
"Our production capacity is more than 100 times behind that of our competitors," he said, "and that's the reason we founded this company."
Furientis does not intend to compete head-on with the most advanced missile interceptors in terms of performance; on the contrary, its design and manufacturing approach aim to allow the system to be quickly assembled using off-the-shelf components. As a result, the cost of each system is just a fraction of that of traditional interceptors, which is quite attractive to the Pentagon, which is eager to expand its inventory within strict budget constraints.
Unlike traditional defense giants such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, Furientis is not slowed down by long design cycles. The company has been conducting field missile tests every two weeks. Its ultimate goal is to have each factory produce 1,000 sets of systems per year. However, for now, this young company is still operating out of its facilities in Los Angeles and is sending prototypes to White Sands, New Mexico, for testing.
Given the strong demand, Furientis is not the only company helping the government to replenish its inventory. Franzen indicates that larger defense startups such as Anduril, Castelion, and Shield AI are also competing to develop mass-producible interceptors, while traditional defense giants are also accelerating the transformation of their manufacturing cycles.
The Puttagunta of Benchmark is not worried about this seemingly crowded track. “I think there are still many opportunities for companies in this field,” he said.
