Defense & hard tech startups in Los Angeles

Tony Koblinski (CEO)

Huntington Beach-HQ'd fabricator of mission-critical space & defense systems (payload fairings, propulsion, missile/hypersonic and UAS structures). IPO'd on NYSE (ticker KRMN) Feb 2025 at a ~$4B valuation, r...

Ian Cinnamon & Maximilian Benassi

LA-HQ'd productized satellite-bus maker; first Aries spacecraft (SN1) has been on orbit 1+ year and won a $46M Space Force contract. Raised a $200M Series C (Apr 2025, Point72/8VC) and a $200M Series D (Sep ...

Kevin Czinger

Founded 2014, Torrance (plus Long Beach); its DAPS end-to-end digital manufacturing platform designs, 3D-prints and auto-assembles complex structures without fixed tooling. Expanded into defense (Lockheed, R...

Karan Kunjur & Neel Kunjur

Ex-SpaceX team building high-power, low-cost 'mega' satellite buses (Mega-class) for MEO/GEO. Opened a 180,000 sq ft Torrance factory and flew its first in-space demo in Feb 2025. Raised a $110M Series B (Fe...

Tim Ellis (fdr), Eric Schmidt (CEO/Chair)

Founded 2015; 3D-prints rockets via its Stargate printers in a 1M+ sq ft Long Beach factory. Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt took a controlling stake and became CEO/Chairman in March 2025, refocusing on the fully...

Bryon Hargis & team (ex-SpaceX)

Founded late 2022 by ex-SpaceX engineers; mass-manufactures low-cost hypersonic weapons (the Blackbeard missile) using SpaceX-style vertical integration. Ran 20+ development flight tests in 2025. Closed a $3...

Chris Power

Founded 2020; builds AI-powered, tooling-free automated factories ('Factories-as-a-Service') for precision aerospace and defense parts. Raised a $260M Series C in July 2025 (Founders Fund/Lux, Morgan Stanley...

Doug Bernauer

Founded 2020, El Segundo (founder is ex-SpaceX); building the Kaleidos 1 MW portable/failsafe nuclear microreactor for remote and defense sites. Signed a USAF base supply agreement; first reactor (KDU) targe...

Erik Palmer & T.J. Ronacher

LA-based, founded by ex-SpaceX engineers; AI-native autonomous metal 3D printing. Its GoldenEye (18-laser) system is evolving into the hundreds-of-lasers Skyfall platform (on-site H200 GPU clusters for real-...

Soren Monroe-Anderson & Olaf Hichwa

Founded 2023 by former pro drone racers; American-made FPV strike drones (the Archer / Archer Strike). Selected for the US Army PBAS program plus USMC contracts. Opened a 15,500 sq ft El Segundo facility; sc...

Jordan Black & Benjamin Shanahan

Founded 2023 by ex-SpaceX engineers; onshores wire-harness manufacturing (the hand-made cable bundles behind satellites, drones and missiles) via proprietary design software + assembly-as-a-service. Raised a...

Alex Tseng & Devan Plantamura

Founded 2024, El Segundo (YC S24 — one of YC's first missile bets); builds low-cost, compact anti-ship cruise missiles ~10x smaller and cheaper than legacy systems, using commercial parts and vertical integr...

LA-based (founded 2023) energy startup by ex-SpaceX flight-safety engineer Bala Ramamurthy (Indian-origin), building modular microgrids + battery storage + software to cut grid-interconnection delays from ye...

City-of-LA-based cleantech startup (LACI Cohort 10, Spring 2025) building a fully integrated DC-native HVAC system that connects directly to solar and battery storage for building electrification. Early-stag...