Participated · Equity · Aug 2026

Valar Atomics is developing advanced nuclear reactors intended for scalable deployment and is pursuing clusters of small reactors—sometimes called "gigasites"—to serve high-demand users such as data centers and manufacturing. Founded in 2023 and based in California, the company is also exploring applications beyond grid electricity, including producing synthetic fuels and supplying industrial heat. Its technology and commercial approach target energy-intensive industries and the growing electricity needs driven by AI infrastructure. Financially, Valar recently raised approximately $450 million (about $340 million equity and $110 million debt) at a reported $2 billion valuation, following a prior $130 million raise in 2025. The company is backed by defense-tech investors including Palmer Luckey and Shyam Sankar.

Led · Series E · May 2026

Astranis designs, manufactures, and operates satellites for geostationary and other high orbits to deliver dedicated, secure communications networks to large enterprises, sovereign governments, and the U.S. military. The company reports five satellites on orbit and a commercial backlog in excess of $1 billion. Astranis has been selected as a prime contractor for initial phases of multiple U.S. Department of Defense Programs of Record, including PTS-G, Resilient GPS, and Andromeda. It employs roughly 500 engineers and operates out of a 153,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Northern California. The company is scaling manufacturing capacity to accelerate satellite production and meet rising demand from commercial and government customers.

Participated · Series G · Mar 2026

Founded in 2015, Shield AI develops autonomy software (Hivemind) and unmanned aircraft platforms such as V-BAT and X-BAT. Hivemind has piloted 26 classes of vehicles, including F-16s, jet-powered UAVs, helicopters, drone boats, and ground vehicles, and was selected by the U.S. Air Force as a mission autonomy provider for Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). Shield AI is actively conducting flight tests of Hivemind onboard the Anduril YFQ-44A CCA. The company operates offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific and supports operations worldwide. Financially, Shield AI completed a $2.0 billion financing package at a $12.7 billion valuation tied in part to its planned acquisition of Aechelon, a high-fidelity simulation and synthetic reality company. The Aechelon acquisition is expected to close after regulatory approvals and will continue to operate independently while reporting into Shield AI’s leadership.

Led · Series B · Jul 2022

Merlin Labs builds an autonomous flight avionics system designed to be installed in existing aircraft, using GPS, inertial navigation, air data, and altitude/heading reference systems to control actuators via an onboard flight computer. The system includes speech‑recognition to interpret air traffic control instructions and operates with a human pilot as fallback while using pilot data to improve performance. Merlin recently secured FAA and New Zealand CAA approval for its certification basis and has commercial partnerships with Dynamic Aviation and Ameriflight. The company has also branched into defense, supplying its system to the U.S. Air Force to retrofit C-130J Super Hercules aircraft under an OTA arrangement. Merlin reports generating “8+ figures of revenue” and employs about 70 people across offices in Los Angeles, Denver and New Zealand, plus a Mojave flight facility. With the new funding it plans to expand testing, build a New Zealand Part 135 freight capability, and grow its headcount. Merlin Labs is building a certifiable autonomy system for complex fixed-wing aircraft, focusing on on-board autonomy rather than remote piloting. Founded in 2018 and led by CEO Matthew George, the company has demonstrated hundreds of autonomous missions on multiple aircraft types, including complex twin turboprops. Its aircraft-agnostic autonomy platform is being integrated into a wide variety of public- and private-sector aircraft. The company had been operating in stealth until the funding announcement. Merlin announced a 55-aircraft partnership with Dynamic Aviation, the owner of the world’s largest private King Air fleet. It maintains offices in Boston, Los Angeles, Denver, and Auckland, New Zealand, and operates a dedicated flight facility at the Mojave Air & Space Port.

Participated · Series C · Mar 2022

Gecko Robotics combines wall-climbing robots, industry-leading sensors, and an AI-powered data platform to provide customers visibility into the health of critical physical assets. The company serves defense customers including the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force, with contracts to speed surface-ship maintenance cycles and assess ICBM launch facilities under the Sentinel program. Gecko recently launched Cantilever, an AI-powered software platform used by the Navy and other customers to accelerate decision making. Demand from the U.S. military and allied partners has increased significantly, and Gecko is expanding into manufacturing support for the Columbia-class submarine program. The company says the new funding will accelerate growth in its defense business and broaden partnerships with the U.S. military. Gecko Robotics provides wall-climbing robots and enterprise software serving essential industries such as power generation, oil and gas, heavy manufacturing, and defense. Its robots capture data at scale and fidelity, climbing pipelines, boilers, tanks, ship hulls and other assets to detect subtle damage. The company’s software enables human experts to contextualize that data and translate it into action. Co-founded by Jake Loosararian (CEO) and Troy Demmer (Chief Product Officer), Gecko is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA and maintains offices in Houston, Austin, New York City, Boston and Europe. The company raised $73M in Series C funding and intends to use the proceeds to expand operations and advance development efforts. Gecko Robotics is a Pittsburgh-based maker of wall-climbing robots for industrial inspection led by CEO Jake Loosararian. The company develops and operates climbing robots equipped with acoustic, laser, electromagnetic and other non-destructive testing modules to inspect industrial plants. Its software aggregates the large volumes of inspection data to help predict when and where infrastructure failures will occur. The company plans to use the funds to support scaling operations and to hire software and product engineers. Gecko has grown headcount from 45 to 115 employees in the past 12 months and maintains offices in Houston, Austin, Texas and Europe. It recently raised $40M in a Series B to finance this expansion. Gecko Robotics builds wall-climbing robots that inspect industrial equipment such as tanks, boilers and pipelines using proprietary magnetic adhesion, ultrasonics, lasers and multiple sensors. The robots are used at U.S. power plants and other industrial facilities to identify hazards ahead of human workers. Gecko augments its hardware with machine learning to improve inspection speed and accuracy. Individual robots are sold in the $50,000–$100,000 range. The company has been working toward profitability while expanding deployments. Co-founder Jake Loosararian has demonstrated the technology publicly and emphasized safety and reduced facility shutdown time as core benefits.