Mach Industries, announced that it has raised $5.7M in a round led by Sequoia Capital and with participation from Marque VC and Champion Hill Ventures. This represents Sequoia’s first investment in a hardware defense technology company, adding to the firm’s history of partnering with companies that support US national security interests. The money will be used by Mach to bolster its product development and to continue hiring top talent.
Founded by Ethan Thornton, Mach Industries is spearheading a hardware-first approach to defense with cutting-edge hydrogen creation and combustion techniques. Central to Mach’s innovation is the use of a new generation of fuel: hydrogen. This versatile fuel can be easily manufactured in the field using readily available resources, such as electricity or aluminium, and water. Hydrogen is also interchangeable across all Mach systems. Most importantly, hydrogen enables 10x advancements in range and power for projectiles and unparalleled loiter time and speed for aerial systems.
“Hydrogen is a fascinating fuel—it’s really the only way to drive combustion out of electricity. This process allows for flexible energy transfer, and the resulting fuel increases performance on many legacy platforms. The result is a more distributed energy supply chain supporting systems with otherwise impossible capabilities,” said Thornton. “I founded Mach to push the development of these capabilities as I saw their adoption as a necessary step in the future of defense.”
Mach is initially focused on developing a suite of oxyhydrogen defense platforms, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and aerial protection devices. The company’s systems will provide a significant advantage in both logistics and capability.
Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia, expressed his enthusiasm for Mach’s groundbreaking technology and its potential to solve the challenging problem of hypersonic defense, saying:
“Since witnessing the test flight of hypersonic vehicle 2 in 2011 while at DARPA, I’ve been enamored with hypersonic defense technology. Historically, this has been a hard problem to solve due to the extreme velocities and nonlinearities involved, yet Mach is paving the first legitimate technical pathway to overcome these challenges.”
Mach is investing heavily in manufacturing, aiming to establish a vertically integrated supply chain that can deliver advanced systems at an unprecedented scale. Utilizing automation, breakthrough hydrogen technologies, and cutting-edge manufacturing techniques, the company is set on mass-producing robust, attributable systems designed to execute strategically over long distances.
Thornton began his founder journey at the age of 16 when he prototyped small arms applications in his garage. While studying at MIT and pursuing a career in the Air Force through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), Thorton continued to prototype and ideate. This revolutionary technology attracted the interest of Lincoln Laboratory, a research and development center funded by MIT and the Department of Defense. Following this early success, Thornton left MIT to establish Mach Industries. Since then, the company has hired top-tier talent, including fellow MIT classmates, ROTC cadets, military veterans, and critical members of Lincoln Laboratory.
Stephanie Zhan, a partner at Sequoia, added: “Ethan is a force of nature: from his technical depth and genuine obsession with the problem to his bias for action and maturity beyond his years. Defense technology is central to our safety and security, and Mach is a step-function advancement to the state of the industry.”
The company is headquartered in Austin, TX and has a hardware facility in Boston, MA. Today’s funding milestone brings Mach Industries one step closer on its journey to equip the United States and its allies with cutting-edge technology to effectively combat in peer-to-peer conflicts.
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