MIT dropout's Mach Industries doubles valuation to $3.7B in three months with fresh $600M round. September 11, 2026 * Mach Industries raised $600 million more, taking its Series C total to $900 million. * The round values it at $3.7 billion, more than double the $1.8 billion mark it hit in June. * Total funding tops $1 billion across five rounds since the company launched in 2023. Mach Industries has made its own funding round look cheap. Three months afterEthan Thornton, the 22-year-old founder and CEO, closed a $300 million Series C at a $1.8 billion valuation, the defence manufacturer has come back for $600 million more. Investors have priced it at $3.7 billion, more than double where it stood in June. The extension pushes the Series C's total size to $900 million and takes Mach's lifetime funding past $1 billion, just over a year after a Series B valued it at $470 million. Ribbit Capital, Infinite Capital, Bedrock Capital, and Sequoia Capital all doubled down in the second tranche, the same group that led the June round. "Modern deterrence requires an industrial base capable of building relevant capabilities at the speed and volume the mission demands. This investment allows us to continue expanding that capacity while moving new platforms from development into production faster," said Thornton. Ethan Thornton's vision on a new defence industry. Mach builds vertical takeoff and landing drones, long-range strike systems, and counter-drone platforms out of a 115,000-square-foot headquarters in Huntington Beach, California. But its real pitch to investors is upstream of any single weapon. In May, it paid roughly $50 million in cash and equity for Exquadrum, a solid rocket motor startup, beating out at least eight other bidders for a company sitting on a supply-chain bottleneck that drone demand has made acute. That deal became the basis for Mach Energetics, a new unit that sells rocket motors and energetic systems to external customers. A second unit, Mach Propulsion, is chasing the same playbook in jet engines. A field that's getting expensive fast. Mach isn't the only one raising at speed. Anduril more than doubled its valuation to $61 billion in a $5 billion round led by Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz in May, and Shield AI raised a $2 billion package, $1.5 billion in equity plus $500 million in preferred financing from Blackstone, at a $12.7 billion valuation the same spring. The manufacturing-first argument Mach is making has also shown up at Hadrian, which raised $1.37 billion at a $7.87 billion valuation in August to build precision parts for other defence primes. Mach also picked up a Defense Innovation Unit contract in June, partnering with Whisper Aero to develop a maritime strike aircraft called Atlas, adding to earlier Army-funded work on its Strategic Strike missile. None of this settles the actual question hanging over the sector: whether any of these companies can manufacture at the volume their valuations now assume, or whether venture money is once again pricing ambition years ahead of a factory's ability to deliver it.

How landscape gardening is being electrified. 13 hours ago Christine RoTechnology Reporter, Los Angeles Part of the soundtrack to a day in southern California is the drone of petrol-powered gardening equipment. Noise is one of the main reasons that cities around the US are banning petrol landscaping tools or encouraging electric alternatives. These alternatives have the additional benefits of reducing carbon emissions, vibrations and the exposure of landscapers to pollution. In addition they can mean longer working hours, as they can be used at times when residents demand quiet. Today, I'm taking part in training run by the American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA), an organisation supporting the transition towards electric landscaping equipment. To my surprise, the electric backpack leaf blower I strap on is not much heavier than my normal rucksack. Using the blower to herd balls around the park feels fairly intuitive, though naturally I'm much clumsier and slower than the pro landscapers. As for noise, there's still a buzz, but the sound is higher-pitched and not quite so loud as the familiar petrol-powered machines. The move to electric power is attracting new companies to the market for gardening kit. US aerospace start-up Whisper Aero is one of those firms. Its main business is electric propulsion systems for aircraft. But in 2022, after the Covid-19 pandemic made many people more sensitive to noise, and following a couple of years of research and development, the company realised that its aerospace-grade fans would work well in leaf blowers. "Our technology is cleaner, quieter and more efficient than other air-moving technologies that exist today," according to Andrew Terajewicz, Whisper Aero's director of air management. "And the leaf blower is the perfect mix of this." The battery on Whisper Aero's blower lasts up to 50 minutes at full power. The company has had to scale up its manufacturing volume in its expansion to consumer technology. Online pre-orders of Whisper Aero's handheld leaf blower started this year. It's priced at the high-end of electric leaf blowers, which are often more expensive than traditional petrol versions. But for that you get a machine which is less likely to disturb the peace. "It is so ultra quiet yet powerful, that the brain has a hard time understanding what's happening," says Dan Mabe, the former landscaper who founded AGZA. Whisper Aero aims to further develop its products, including a backpack leaf blower that would be better suited to professional landscapers. Even with innovation like that, petrol-powered machines are unlikely to disappear anytime soon, particularly for professional landscapers. For a start, petrol machines are much more powerful, which makes for quicker work, so less time is spent lugging around heavy equipment. Terajewicz says that heavy-duty petrol backpack blowers can reach a maximum blowing force of about 50 newtons. The handheld Whisper Aero blower typically runs at about half that, though it can go higher. Another big issue is runtime. Professional gardeners like to use their blowers at full throttle. "For us, it's a little bit hard to use electric," explains Carlos Camarena, a supervisor for a California landscaping company. Camarena's company uses electric tools where they're required to, in cities with ordinances banning petrol tools. But when they have a choice, they stick to petrol. His company typically uses batteries that last for about 30 minutes. A crew has six batteries charging at any given time; each takes about 45 minutes to reach a full charge. Then there's the considerable upfront cost of going electric. One landscaper estimates that it would cost his business around $10,000 (£7,540) to transition all their equipment. The subsidies and rebates offered by some local governments may not be enough to offset the cost of the switch. The change would be even harder for landscapers who work as sole proprietors, with a single vehicle and limited space for charging and storing equipment. Added to that is the weight of tools with multiple batteries, and the cost of accessories to hold them all. Nevertheless the biggest makers of power tools are investing in electric. Stihl, a power tool manufacturer headquartered in Germany, aims for battery-powered equipment to make up 35% of its sales by next year, and 80% by 2035. It's on track to meet the 2027 goal in Europe, though sales in the US have been slower. To help reach its targets, the company opened its first plant solely manufacturing batteries and tools, in Romania in 2025. "We like to say that we are dual-technology leaders," says Paul Hicks, senior marketing and product manager at Stihl GB. "So we are being very open with our customers if in some cases a petrol tool may be a better solution for them... But in the large majority of cases, battery-power tools pay off fairly swiftly because of the cost of fuel." In May, Stihl announced a new battery system that uses high-performance batteries. These batteries use a relatively new, more efficient design for lithium battery cells, known as tabless cells. Tabless cells have 60% more peak power than standard cells, according to Hicks. This means that the batteries charge faster, and landscapers can take fewer batteries out to sites. The batteries are also relatively lightweight. Mabe believes that overall, for gardeners embracing long-lasting electric equipment, "There's big rewards if they can make it work." Back in southern California, landscaper Camarena sees the benefits of electric tools. "We don't contaminate the air," he says. "When we use the gas blower, some people get mad. They are reading a book or something." More Technology of Business