Dear D3 Investors,
This is our unicorn month!
Two of our portfolio companies—Cambridge Aerospace and Kela Technologies—have reached unicorn status.
Cambridge Aerospace raised $200M at a $1.3B post-money valuation, bringing total funding to $335M. The round was led by Elad Gil. The company will use the proceeds to fulfill a major US/UK contract for the Middle East and to accelerate its pan-European expansion. The system deployed in the ME is a simplified version of the platform currently being prepared for testing and deployment in Ukraine this quarter. We have supported the build-out of a local team and entity in Ukraine to accelerate this process—laying the groundwork for significantly larger follow-on contracts.
Kela Technologies raised $200M at a $1.2B post-money valuation, bringing total funding to $307M, in a round led by D1 Capital Partners and Stripes. The company is already delivering multi-domain solutions across active theaters: high-value target protection in Lebanon, forward operating base protection in Syria as frontlines shift, and perimeter defense across Jordan, Iraq, and the Gaza buffer zone. This new capital will enable Kela to scale into fiber optics and munitions manufacturing, with new facilities planned across Israel, the US, and Europe.
We are also beginning to see meaningful collaboration across the portfolio. Kela is integrating its fiber optics into Neros Archer drones, planning joint efforts with Onodrim on production of munitions, and exploring deployment of Tytan interceptors in the ME. This is exactly the kind of ecosystem-level compounding we aim to build at D3.
Total = 1050 (+60)
This month’s theme is advanced manufacturing.
TALOS DEVICES
Registered: Delaware, US
D3 Investment: $1M at $40M pre-money
Round Lead: General Catalyst
Talos Devices is our first investment in advanced manufacturing, targeting one of the most critical bottlenecks in the defense supply chain: motors and propulsion systems.
The company is initially building a fully automated production line for small drone motors, addressing a market where China maintains near-total dominance—not only in motor manufacturing, but also in the supply of key inputs such as rare-earth magnets. Talos is mitigating this risk by securing a magnet supply from a large Italian industrial player currently primarily focused on civilian markets. The company will then expand into other supply bottlenecks.
At its core, this is a bet on founder Martin C. Feldmann—also the founder of VulcanForms, a leading integrated digital manufacturing platform for aerospace, defense, medical, and industrial applications, which has raised over $575M. Feldmann combines deep technical expertise with a proven track record in scaling advanced manufacturing systems, with multiple patents in additive manufacturing and research originating from Prof. John Hart’s lab at MIT focused on hybrid, digitally driven production systems.
Talos Devices is already positioning itself within the Ukrainian defense ecosystem, with plans to supply and partner with several of the country’s largest drone manufacturers.
Talos Devices Automated Drone Motor Manufacturing Line