Defense tech’s funding growth

August 20, 2024

Hi, Agen. The giant Series F closed earlier this month by Anduril Industries, co-led by Founders Fund and Sands Capital Ventures, showed growing interest in the defense tech space. We take a look at who else is getting in on the action. Plus, the journey many startups need to take to reach the next level of funding is taking longer.

🪖 Big names are funding defense tech

Defense tech has been in the news lately thanks to big rounds raised by Anduril Industries and Helsing. The big-name firms leading those rounds have been pretty busy in the space in recent years.

Related Crunchbase Pro list: Global Defense Tech Funding

⏳ Startups taking longer to close rounds

The time lapse between funding rounds for early-stage startups in the U.S. has reached the highest point in more than a decade, hitting 28 months — by far the longest span since 2012.

🧠 Put your startup savvy to the test with the Real Fake game

Crunchbase partnered with VC firm Felicis to build a daily web-based game called Real Fake, where you guess which companies are real and which are AI-generated. Play it and see how high you can score.

🏆 Last week’s 10 biggest funding rounds

Last week definitely saw a slowdown in big rounds, with only three deals breaking the $100 million mark. However, healthcare and medical device makers did well. Perhaps announcements are slowing as summer is coming to a close, but the week certainly seemed to lack the big money of so many this year.

✂️ Cisco staffing cuts lead weekly Layoffs Tracker numbers

It was a big week for The Crunchbase Tech Layoffs Tracker with over 6,000 workers getting cut from sectors ranging from healthcare to software to robotics.