September's Space Dirt 🚀 (month-end)

In this issue… I’ve updated the SoCal hard tech landscape map for the first time in about 4 months and even included some takeaways. If you’d like a PDF of the map, email me.

As for the rest of this issue, we have:

• 8 real estate highlights

• 3 companies emerging from stealth

• 15 fundings

• 10 agreements, partnerships & contracts

• 3 pieces of content I think you might enjoy…

And a whole lot more.

Enjoy!

REAL ESTATE HIGHLIGHTS

Sophia Space leased space at 41 S Chester Ave, Pasadena, CA. (source: Me!)

Astro Mechanica leased 21,500 SF at 550 7th Street, San Francisco, CA. (source: Me!)

Archer Aviation leased 105,039 SF at 10 W Tasman Dr, San Jose, CA. (source: Me!)

Longshot Space, based at 3425 Ettie St, Oakland, CA, has recently leased land in Nevada, where it plans to build a 1.6-kilometer-long accelerator for its kinetic launch system. (source: Longshot Space)

Rendezvous Robotics opened its HQ in Golden, CO. (source: LinkedIn)

Valar Atomics and Kiewit announced the groundbreaking at the San Rafael Energy Research Center for Ward250 in Emery County, UT. This will be Valar Atomics’ first reactor. Kiewit is America's second-largest power plant builder, with more active reactor construction projects than any other company in North America. (source: LinkedIn)

Woodward, Inc., a global leader in energy control solutions for aerospace and industrial markets, announced its plans to build a 300,000 SF precision manufacturing facility in Greer, SC, in Spartanburg County. The site is expected to become operational in 2027 and will progressively scale production and hiring in subsequent years to meet market demand. The facility will focus on producing servo-hydraulic actuation systems, which are critical components used in aircraft flight control. (source: Woodward)

Ursa Major broke ground on a new 400-acre solid rocket motor test site in Weld County, CO, marking a significant expansion in the company’s ability to design, build, and test and qualify large solid rocket motor systems, to include those required for standard missile programs, in support of national and missile defense priorities. (source: Ursa Major)

STEALTH NO MORE

Walter Minehart announced Minehart Machine with a LinkedIn posting. Minehart Machine offers machined parts or other manufacturing support.

Hermeus Founder and President, Skyler Shuford, announced that he is leaving Hermeus (but will remain on the Board of Directors) to launch Reaxiomatic. From Skyler’s LinkedIn, “The Reax mission is to increase the rate of American capability.”

James Schalwyk announced Azora via a LinkedIn post. “We’re building truly modular optical ground stations to deliver high-throughput laser communications from the skies, LEO, the Moon, and beyond.” WAzora is working on “turning breakthrough tech into a solution to one of the biggest challenges in space and defense today: near-real-time access to terabytes of data, especially in contested or bandwidth-limited RF environments.” James is a cofounder and will be the CEO of Azora.

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“THE MAP”

This SoCal hard tech landscape map includes 226 hard tech companies across the region. As a reminder, I don’t include the Primes of the world in this map. These are mostly VC-backed startups, founded after 2000, with the majority launched in just the last seven years. SpaceX, founded in 2002, is one of the oldest on the list. The “SpaceX Effect” is evident, with roughly half of these companies tracing their roots back to it.

Looking at this map in comparison to my earlier versions, one thing remains clear:

Hard tech in SoCal isn’t confined to a single neighborhood.

While a few cities dominate, the density of startups across the region reveals just how extensive the ecosystem is.

A quick breakdown:

• El Segundo leads the pack with 53 companies, making it the region’s undisputed hard tech capital.

• Long Beach (21), Torrance (21), Hawthorne (16), and Los Angeles (13) round out the top five hotspots.

• Mid-sized clusters include Pasadena (8), Irvine (8), Huntington Beach (8), San Diego (7), and Culver City (7).

• Dozens of other cities have 1–5 companies, showing just how spread out SoCal’s ecosystem is.

Here’s how the above looks in a pie chart:

REAL ESTATE CORNER

I really enjoyed getting to know Gustavo and his team at Pinto Robotics and look forward to watching them grow in their new space in Culver City.

NOTABLE FUNDINGS

Figure has exceeded more than $1 billion in committed capital through its Series C financing round, at a post-money valuation of $39 billion. The funding will accelerate its efforts to bring general-purpose humanoid robots into real-world environments at scale. The round was led by Parkway Venture Capital with significant investment from Brookfield Asset Management, NVIDIA, Macquarie Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, Tamarack Global, LG Technology Ventures, Salesforce, T-Mobile Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures. (source: Figure)

Auterion has announced that it has raised $130 million in Series B funding, led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Auterion’s Series B funding will accelerate its mission to “build swarms, not individual drones” by scaling production of its AuterionOS platform and Nemyx defense system, which turns autonomous drones into coordinated combat forces operating across air, land, and sea domains. As part of this investment round, Bessemer Partner Alex Ferrara will join Auterion’s board. The round also includes participation of existing investor Lakestar, which led Auterion’s first institutional round (and has invested in every round since), as well as existing investors Mosaic Ventures and Costanoa Ventures. Out of the $130 million round, $25 million is backed by the U.S. Department of War (non-dilutive capital backed by the Office of Strategic Capital of the Department of War and provided by Rochefort). (source: Auterion)

Dyna Robotics has raised $120 million in our Series A to advance the frontier of general-purpose high-performance robots. This round is led by Robostrategy, CRV, and First Round Capital, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, NVentures (NVIDIA), Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Samsung Next, and LG Technology Ventures. (source: LinkedIn)

Hubble Network announced a $70 million Series B. The round brings Hubble’s total funding to $100M, and includes funds from Y Combinator, Ryan Swagar and Tom Gonser from DocuSign, Mike Farley from Tile, Marc Weiser from RPM Ventures, and Tuff Yen from Seraph Group. (source: Payload)

Firehawk Aerospace has secured investment from Presto Tech Horizons (PTH), a unique defense and resilience tech fund, created through a partnership between European venture capital firm Presto Ventures and global industrial and technology firm Czechoslovak Group. The oversubscribed $60 million investment round was led by 1789 Capital, helmed by partners including Donald Trump Jr. Other participants include Draper Associates, Decisive Point, Stellar Ventures, and other leading VCs. As the only European investor in the round, Presto Tech Horizons helps bring Firehawk’s breakthrough energetics technology closer to allied defense users across Europe. (source: Startup Kitchen)

Factory announced a $50 million Series B from NEA, Sequoia Capital, NVIDIA, J.P. Morgan, as well as notable angel investors, including Frank Slootman, Nikesh Arora, and Aaron Levie. (source: BusinessWire)

HiveWatch has closed a $33 million oversubscribed Series B funding round led by Anthos Capital, with participation from Harmonic Growth Partners, Across Capital, and existing investors. The raise brings the company’s total financing to more than $65 million. (source: Security Info Watch)

Alaska Capital, an Alaska-based investment and development company, announced today that it has signed a letter of intent to invest $30 million in a Series A financing of Fenix Space, a San Bernardino-based company, pioneering reusable tow-launch and hypersonic aerospace technologies. As part of the collaboration, Alaska Capital also intends to assist Fenix Space with access to Alaska’s unique strategic locations for aerospace and defense operations. This includes airports and launch facilities in Kodiak, Anchorage, Fairbanks, and the Aleutians. These sites position Alaska as a leading global hub for commercial space launches, hypersonic testing, as well as international trade and global logistics. (source: LinkedIn)

Atomic Industries has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by MaC Venture Capital and DTX Ventures, with participation from the University of Michigan, Calm Ventures, Blackwing, Narya, and others, to build America's next-generation industrial base. (source: LinkedIn)

Fourth Power raised a $19 million Series A in December 2023 from DCVC and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Today, the Cambridge, MA-based company is announcing another $20 million round of financing that it’s labeling a Series A Plus. Led by Munich Re Ventures, with additional investment by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and DCVC, the Series A Plus designation is meant to indicate that this financing round comes with a different valuation and investment size than the Series A round—but the raise is not big enough to warrant a Series B designation, says Arvin Ganesan, CEO of Fourth Power. The additional $20 million, which brings the company’s total funding to $40 million, will be used to achieve commercial viability and build out a sales and partnerships pipeline. Fourth Power has developed a battery that can transform electricity into heat, store it in carbon blocks that become extremely hot, and then convert that heat back into electricity when needed via thermophotovoltaic cells. (source: Inc.)

Swarmer, Ukraine’s leading drone autonomy and swarming company, announced a $15 million Series A led by U.S. investors — Broadband Capital Investments, with support from R-G.AI, D3 Venture Capital Firm, Green Flag Ventures, Network VC, and UA1 VC. (source: LinkedIn)

Sphere Semi raised $12 million, led by Acme Capital and co-led by Future Ventures, bringing total funding to $20 million. Other backers included Construct Capital, Abstract, Xfund, Generational Partners, and Village Global. (source: LinkedIn)

MoldCo landed $8 million in seed funding, co-led by Cantos and Collaborative Fund, to scale up its lab testing and treatment services. The startup has raised $11 million to date. The company offers a virtual clinic to make it easier for individuals to access mold and environmental toxins testing services, diagnosis, and treatment. (source: Fierce Healthcare)

Icarus raised a $6.1 million seed round led by Soma Capital and Xtal, with participation from Nebular and Massive Tech Ventures to get there. Icarus plans to take on space’s ‘warehouse work’ with embodied-AI robots, “The labor force for space.” (source: TechCrunch)

Nox Metals raised $4.6 million in pre-seed funding. (source: X)

AGREEMENTS, PARTNERSHIPS, & CONTRACTS

SES, a space solutions company, and K2 Space, a new space technology firm, announced a strategic collaboration to advance the development of SES’s future medium Earth orbit (MEO) network. The collaboration combines SES’s decades of experience operating global multi-orbit networks, including its O3b mPOWER MEO network, with K2 Space’s agile engineering capabilities to co-develop future network infrastructure and technologies. (source: BusinessWire)

LightPath Technologies announced a $40 million order (in total) for its advanced infrared camera systems. (source: LinkedIn)

Ursa Major was awarded a $34.9 million contract from an undisclosed U.S. aerospace and defense company to deliver Draper engines and associated services. The effort will accelerate development, production, and deployment of Draper for critical national security applications in space and ultimately validate the engine’s performance and flexibility under operational conditions. (source: Ursa Major)

Firefly received an additional $10 million from NASA for delivering extra data and images on its Blue Ghost Mission 1 lunar mission this year. All told, the mission collected nearly 120 gigabytes of data during both its 45-day trek to the Moon and its two weeks on the lunar surface. Head to the link for the type of data. (source: Payload)

Firehawk announced that it has scored a $4 million contract with AFWERX for some of their futuristic rocket fuel. This new AFWERX contract will fund Firehawk’s development and hot-fire tests of their 3D-printed, thermoplastic-based propellant, optimized for different thrust profiles and ranges. (source: Tectonic Defense)

TransAstra, a pioneer in space logistics and resource utilization, has been awarded a $2.5 million contract by NASA's Civil Commercial Research and Products Program (CCRPP) to scale its inflatable Capture Bag system from 1 to 10 meters in diameter. The award supports NASA's Space Sustainability Strategy by advancing technologies that address one of the most urgent challenges in space today, orbital debris. This CCRPP award is matched by $2.5 million in private investment, enabling TransAstra to accelerate development and testing of the 10-meter Capture Bag for future flight demonstrations. (source: Newswire)

A new agreement between Space Forge and United Semiconductors will aim to manufacture advanced semiconductors in space for future quantum computers and electronic devices. The collaboration aims to assist Space Forge in designing specialized equipment and exploring new pathways for in-space manufacturing. (source: Payload)

Zeno Power has signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Orano, a French nuclear recycler, to lock in a steady supply of americium-241 (Am-241) to fuel the U.S. startup’s long-duration space batteries. The deal gives Zeno priority access to material recovered from used nuclear fuel in France, the Seattle-based venture announced Sept. 24, addressing a gap left by the scarcity of the plutonium-238 (Pu-238) isotope behind many NASA deep space missions. Zeno said Am-241 is attractive because it occurs naturally in used nuclear fuel and has a half-life of more than 430 years, enabling power systems to operate for decades. (source: SpaceNews)

Picogrid, a leading developer of integrated systems technology, announced today it is collaborating with Northrop Grumman to adapt its Legion software to support U.S. air defense modernization efforts. As part of this collaboration, Picogrid will work to integrate Legion into Northrop Grumman’s AiON system, a cost-effective and secure counter-drone command-and-control solution, enabling operators to oversee multiple sites from any location. (source: Picogrid)

Australian-American c-UAS company DroneShield announced that it’s massively expanding its R&D operations in the US. The company—which already has a branch in the U.S. and works closely with the DoD—says it will invest “several million dollars” in its expansion in the next two years, U.S. CEO Matt McCrann told Tectonic. The company says that nearly 40 percent of its new hires will be software developers—their expansion in the U.S. will be largely focused on building out AI-powered threat detection and sensor fusion capabilities. They’ll also deliver handheld and fixed-site c-UAS to the DoD and DHS. (source: Tectonic Defense)

WHAT I’M CONSUMING (AND ENJOYING!) 

📊 Stifel’s Greg Singer shares some thoughts and insights on his four years serving the SoCal VC world, including the growing momentum of hard tech (see above graph).

🎖 “The future of military power will not be determined by the most exquisite hardware, but by the most effectively scaled and networked family of capabilities.” Matthew Steckman, President and Chief Business Officer at Anduril Industries, and Eliot Pence, Founder of Dominion Dynamics, share their outline on some institutional principles for what a revolution in attritable mass will mean—for investors, Department of War officials, industry, and others.

🤖 “A robot is not a body type. A robot is autonomy wrapped in hardware.” Another banger from Henry Kwan’s Substack as he tells us how software will continue to eat the world (and the Stratosphere).

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 sure. (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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