June's Space Dirt 🚀 (month-end)

Greetings! In this issue:

• 6 companies emerging from stealth

• An invitation to my client, Cofactr’s open house

• 13 fundings (including 2 newly minted unicorns)

And a whole lot more.

Enjoy!

REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

HABIT leased space in El Segundo, CA. (source: Me!)

Cofactr leased 9,594 SF at 4007 Paramount Blvd, Lakewood, CA. (source: Me!)

Orbital Operations leased 5,500 SF at 2386 E Artesia Blvd, Long Beach, CA. (source: Me!)

Umbra announced the opening of its new 50,000 SF manufacturing facility in Santa Barbara, CA. The new facility boosts Umbra’s annual satellite production capabilities – supporting new satellites with over four times the imaging throughput and enabling the manufacture of world-class apertures more than four times larger than previously possible. This expansion in capacity positions Umbra to deliver tailored radar solutions at speed and scale, from precision data products to full system deployments. (source: Umbra)

Portal Space Systems leased a 50,000 SF spacecraft manufacturing facility just 3 miles away from its existing design and testing hub in Bothell, WA. (source: GeekWire)

Botics expanded to 5,000 SF in Roseville, MI. (source: X)

York Space Systems is expanding to a new 7,100 SF office in Greenwood Village, CO. The new space will support classified missions. This marks York’s sixth facility in the Denver area. (source: LinkedIn)

Fortem Technologies opened its new headquarters and manufacturing facility designed to meet surging demand for its counter-drone systems. The new 51,000 SF building in Lindon, UT, more than doubles capacity and brings production in-house. (source: Fortem Technologies)

JetZero, the Long Beach, CA-based company, announced it would break ground next year on a manufacturing plant in Greensboro, N.C., ultimately investing nearly $5 billion. The factory would employ more than 14,500 workers, the company said, making it North Carolina’s largest-ever jobs announcement. It puts JetZero on track to start rolling out its space-age-looking, blended-wing airplanes for commercial use by 2032. The state-of-the-art factory, located on the Piedmont Triad International Airport grounds, will produce JetZero’s Z4 airplane, designed to transform commercial aviation through fuel efficiency, cutting-edge engineering, and an elevated passenger and flight crew experience. (source: The Wall Street Journal)

STEALTH NO MORE

Andrew Barry comes out of stealth mode and debuts Generalist AI, an AI robotics company with the mission to make general-purpose robots a reality. The startup is backed by NVIDIA, Spark Capital, Boldstart Ventures, Bezos Expeditions, NFDG, and more. (source: X)

Sorcerer emerged from stealth with $3.9 million in seed funding to scale their global network of weather balloons. FCVC led the round, and was joined by Y Combinator, Collaborative Fund, Transpose Platform, Pioneer Fund, New Legacy, and First Order Fund. Angels in the fund included Kulveer Taggar and Taro Fukuyama. Sorcerer is deploying a global network of airborne sensors. Its high-altitude balloons collect 1000x more data than existing systems - fueling the world's most accurate weather forecasts. Sorcer is led by Founder and CEO, Austin Tindle. (source: Axios) 

Denver, CO-based startup, Lux Aeterna, emerged from stealth today with $4 million in pre-seed funding to help it develop a fully reusable satellite bus that can fly a mission, re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, and fly again. Space Capital led the round, which included participation from Dynamo Ventures, Mission One Capital, Alumni Ventures, Service Provider Capital, and deep tech angel investors. Brian Taylor, the founder and CEO of Lux Aeterna, says that the goal is for nothing on the satellite to have to be replaced after every mission—and that the first production vehicle is designed to either fly 15 times or spend 15 cumulative years in orbit, whichever comes first. (source: Payload)

Three interesting hard tech companies recently completed Y Combinator and emerged from stealth. Here they are.

Founder Jannik Grothusen’s The Robot Learning Company is making AI-powered robotic automation accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Cofounders Jennifer Song and Adam Mhatre emerged from stealth with Photonium via a LinkedIn post. Photonium automates optical system design with AI, replacing costly manual iteration with end-to-end system optimization.

Cofounders Saba Khalilnaji and Shawn Patel launched Almond Bot, a vision-based AI robot for high-mix pick & place automation. We provide a fully-integrated robot-as-a-service that helps manufacturers save money and increase their revenue. Btw, you can hire Almond Bot today for $9/hour.

Join over 1,800 of the best & brightest in the hard tech community and subscribe to the only commercial real estate hard tech newsletter, Space Dirt!

REAL ESTATE CORNER

To quote Snoop Dogg, “Ain’t no party like a West Coast party."

I recently helped Cofactr 5x its East Coast real estate footprint.

And now, they’re celebrating.

If you'd like to attend the grand opening of the Cofactr West Coast warehouse in Long Beach, CA, you can RSVP here:

https://lu.ma/nezijkfb

A little context.

When a friend of mine referred me to Cofactr, its top priorities were:

→ Finding a 10k SF building that had HVAC in the office/warehouse
→ Under $20k per month
→ Close to an airport
→ Between Orange County and Los Angeles…

Results:

A 9,594 SF facility built specifically for critical hardware components—temperature-controlled, ESD-safe, and ITAR-registered for security.

I'll spare you the rest of the details (you can read Cofactr’s press release for more highlights). But, I don’t think they’d be celebrating with an open house if they weren’t happy.

Go check it out!

Again, the RSVP link is:

https://lu.ma/nezijkfb

Hope to see you there.

- Erik

NOTABLE FUNDINGS

Gecko Robotics announced it raised $125 million in a Series D funding round, raising the AI and robotics company’s valuation to $1.25 billion. The new round of funding means the Pittsburgh-based company has reached unicorn status roughly twelve years after it was founded by Jake Loosararian. The company’s previous round of funding, a $173 million Series C in December 2023, valued it at $633 million. To date, the company has raised $347 million from investors, including USIT, XN, Founders Fund, and Y Combinator. Its latest round was led by new investor Cox Enterprises. (source: CNBC)

Mach Industries, a fast-growing defense technology startup founded in 2023, has secured $100 million in new funding at a $470 million valuation. The round was co-led by Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures and Geoff Lewis of Bedrock Capital, with additional backing from Sequoia. (source: Founders Today)

Muon Space closed its oversubscribed $89.5 million Series B1 round, bringing total Series B funding to $146 million. The new capital includes $44.5 million in equity and $45 million in credit facilities, and follows the company’s initial Series B close in August 2024. The B1 round was led by Congruent Ventures and included existing investors – Activate Capital, Acme Capital, Costanoa Ventures, and Radical Ventures. Muon also welcomed new investor ArcTern Ventures to the syndicate. The new capital is fueling a major scale-up of Muon's operations – including expanded satellite production; vertical integration of key components such as propulsion and IR & RF instruments; deployment of Muon's full-stack automated constellation operations platform; and the expansion of its global ground station network. (source: Muon Space)

Sequoia Capital is leading a $75 million funding round for Nominal Inc., a company developing software for the growing crop of companies working on space, energy, and defense technology. Nominal’s tools allow companies making hardware like planes, drones, ships, and other products to more easily test their designs and monitor their progress. Sequoia’s Alfred Lin will take a board seat in the latest deal. Lightspeed Venture Partners participated in the financing. Existing investors Lux Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund also invested. (source: Bloomberg)

Logos Space, the startup founded by a former Google executive and NASA project manager, has raised $50 million to advance engineering plans for more than 4,000 broadband satellites. The Series A funding came from U.S. Innovative Technologies (USIT), an investment firm backing technologies for both civilian and military use. USIT, chaired by serial entrepreneur Thomas Tull, had earlier injected an undisclosed amount into the venture and remains its sole investor. (source: SpaceNews)

Hypercraft, a hybrid and electric powertrain supplier reshaping the future with its software-defined mobility operating system, completed a $26 million Series A raise, with a post-money valuation of $106 million. The financing was led by Stalwart Ventures. A strategic investment was made by Strategic Development Fund (SDF), an Abu Dhabi-based investment company wholly owned by EDGE Group PJSC. The funds will be used to support Hypercraft’s re-imagining of mobility technology defined by software and AI, and to create an open ecosystem that third-party developers can create apps for, simplifying the integration of new technology for OEM’s. (source: Utah Business)

Bedrock Ocean Exploration raised $25 million to accelerate the future of ocean intelligence. Co-leads were Costanoa Ventures, Harmony Partners, and Katapult Ocean. Also participating were Primary Venture Partners, Northzone, R7, Quiet Capital, Eniac Ventures, Autopilot, and Mana Ventures. (source: LinkedIn)

Senra Systems secures $25 million Series A to modernize wire hardness design. The round was led by Dylan Field & CIV with additional backing by General Catalyst, Sequoia, Founders Fund, a16z, 8VC, and Pax. (source: Senra Systems)

Shinkei raised $22 million in Series A to restore American food sovereignty. Co-led by Founders Fund and Interlagos. (source: X).

Onebrief, which makes military workflow software, raised a $20 million Series C extension led by Battery Ventures at a $1.1 billion valuation, taking the round total to $70 million. The new funding was led by Battery Ventures. The valuation almost doubles the company's $650 million valuation in a February deal led by General Catalyst and puts Onebrief at unicorn status. (source: Axios)

EdgeRunner AI, the leader in domain-specific, air-gapped, on-device AI agents for military and enterprise, today announced the closing of its $12 million Series A fundraising. The round was led by Madrona Ventures with participation from seed lead Four Rivers Ventures and joined by new investors HP Tech Ventures and Alumni Ventures. This brings EdgeRunner AI’s total funding to $17.5 million. The company will use the new capital to grow its team and invest in product development. (source: BusinessWire)

Andrenam, a startup that uses AI to analyze sonar data from undersea environments, said it raised $10 million in a seed round. The seed round, which was led by First Round Capital with participation from Also Capital, Long Journey, Homebrew, the Colorado School of Mines Venture Fund, and others, closed in just 36 hours. (source: Yahoo! Finance)

Koobz has announced a $7.2 million seed round. The Ventura, CA-based startup is focused on "reinventing footwear manufacturing with AI, robotics, and 3D printing.” The funding round was led by Uncork Capital, with participation from Cake Ventures, Antler, V1, Karman Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, and Anorak Ventures. (source: LinkedIn)

AGREEMENTS, PARTNERSHIPS, & CONTRACTS

Ursa Major has been awarded a $32.9 million contract to develop and deliver 16 upgraded Hadley H13 engines to Stratolaunch. The multi-year program extends a series of successful flight collaborations and supports a growing operational cadence. “This contract directly supports U.S. hypersonic test infrastructure and the broader imperative to accelerate high-speed flight programs that deliver for national security,” said Dan Jablonsky, CEO of Ursa Major. (source: Ursa Major)

Pacific Defense, the leader in C5ISR Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) products and integrated mission systems, has received notification from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) of a $9.1 million contract award for the development, integration, and demonstration of an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) enabled common Electronic Warfare (EW) sensor-effector capability. Led by Pacific Defense, with support from Perceptronics Solutions and CMU, the awarded contract has an 18-month period of performance running through October 2026 with primary places of work in El Segundo, CA, Nashua, NH, Fairfax, VA, and Philadelphia, PA. (source: Pacific Defense)

Oklo, an advanced nuclear technology company, has been issued a Notice of Intent to Award (NOITA) by the Defense Logistics Agency Energy (DLA Energy), on behalf of the Department of the Air Force (DAF) and the U.S. Department of Defense, to provide clean, reliable power through the deployment of an Aurora powerhouse at the Air Force installation selected for the project. This project serves as the DAF’s microreactor pilot to enhance energy resilience and reliability for critical national security infrastructure. The NOITA again designates Oklo as the apparent successful offeror following a comprehensive evaluation process. Under the terms of the anticipated agreement, Oklo would design, construct, own, and operate the power plant, delivering both electricity and heat to the DAF’s preferred installation, Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, under a long-term power purchase agreement. (source: Oklo)

Proteus Space won a $2 million TACFI from SpaceWERX to develop a custom ESPA-class satellite bus. (source: LinkedIn)

U.S. drone manufacturer Skydio has confirmed its engagement in a two-year contract to supply X10D small uncrewed aircraft systems to the U.S. Department of State. Under the agreement, the company will supply the drones to the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs to equip U.S. personnel and partner nations. In addition, Skydio will partner with DoS INL to integrate autonomous drones into existing systems and implement specific improvements to enhance global counter-narcotics and law enforcement efforts. (source: DefenceConnect)

WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING!) 

🐴 In Nathan Mintz’s latest Substack, A Golden Dome can't protect against a Trojan Horse, he gives us the highlights of Israel’s Operation Lion while calling on the U.S. to better prepare for Trojan Horse attacks.

HOW I CAN HELP YOU

Some people only know me as “that Space Dirt newsletter guy.” Although I love that moniker, here are 3* ways I can help with your hard tech real estate when the time is right.

1. A new home for your growing business. The good news - you’re growing! The bad news - you need to move, and you don’t know the hard tech real estate market. I can help. And I come with strong references.

2. Sublease your space. You’ve outgrown your space and need to move but don’t want to pay two rents? I got you.

3. Time to renew your lease? Want to make sure you’re getting a fair deal from your Landlord? In my experience, you can never be too certain. (BTW, I recommend starting the lease renewal process 12 months out at a minimum.)

*Not an exhaustive list 💪

Thanks for reading.

If you’d like your office and/or manufacturing space or business profiled - or even your city! - let me know. It’s always fun to explore and share the different components of the hard tech industry.

Erik Stiebel
Founder and Vice President
CA DRE License #02080746
424.241.4795 | [email protected] 
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