What they do:
Onebrief makes military headquarters run seamlessly
Quick facts:
HQ: Honolulu, HI, United States
Funding:
$151M · Equity · Oct 2026
Top Defense Startups
This list has 46 startups and was last updated on Oct 15, 2026. 14 of them are hiring right now. Biggest hubs: San Francisco (22), Los Angeles (5), and Austin (2). Largest teams: Onebrief, Icarus, and Isengard Industries Inc. Latest round: Onebrief raised $151M (Oct 14, 2026).
46 startupsPage 1 of 2
Icarus
Hiring
What they do:
Stratospheric birds for defense
Quick facts:
HQ: Los Angeles, CA, United States
What they do:
Mass-produced AI strike systems and Counter-UAS
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
Nanotechnology-enabled coatings for automotive and defence sectors
Quick facts:
9 Mothers
Hiring
What they do:
Counter Drone Systems. $1.6m sales. We delivered for the DoW.
Quick facts:
HQ: Austin, TX, United States
Deepnight
Hiring
What they do:
Building The Next Generation of Night Vision Devices
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
Query mission-critical video
Quick facts:
What they do:
Drone submarines
Quick facts:
HQ: Philadelphia, PA, United States
Vendra
Hiring
What they do:
Custom Parts, Manufactured in America 🇺🇸
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
Wardstone
Hiring
What they do:
The Modular Interceptor Platform
Quick facts:
HQ: Los Angeles, CA, United States
Theseus
Hiring
What they do:
GPS Denied Navigation for Drones
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
Seeing Systems
Hiring
What they do:
Modular AI-Commanded Drones for Defence
Quick facts:
HQ: London, United Kingdom
What they do:
Building Mission Critical Software Defined Radio products.
Quick facts:
What they do:
Ravn is building a heads-up display for soldiers.
Quick facts:
HQ: Boston, MA, United States
What they do:
AI-driven mobile cybersecurity
Quick facts:
HQ: Nicosia, Cyprus
What they do:
Constellations as a Service
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
Edgerun
Hiring
What they do:
Military exoskeletons
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
Perseus Defense
Hiring
What they do:
America's Golden Dome for Drones
Quick facts:
HQ: Austin, TX, United States
Arlo Industries
Hiring
What they do:
Track drones and missiles without radars - Accurate, Passive, Scalable
Quick facts:
HQ: New York, NY, United States
Vernius Systems, Inc.
Hiring
What they do:
Mass-deployable radars for air defense
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
Synapse Semiconductor
Hiring
What they do:
New semiconductors that merge compute and vision
Quick facts:
HQ: Durham, NC, United States
IMPACT Drones
Hiring
What they do:
Air Defense as a Service for Civilian Infrastructure.
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
Drone swarm defence at a small-unit level
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
Consus
Hiring
What they do:
The fastest and cheapest way to use AI with ITAR or CUI data.
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
Rocket cargo delivery to contested environments
Quick facts:
HQ: Los Angeles, CA, United States
What they do:
Autonomous street sweeping as a service by retro-fitting vehicles
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
Search and automation for engineer-to-order companies
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
A new kind of camera that can see through walls.
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
We're building robot birds for surveillance.
Quick facts:
HQ: Los Angeles, CA, United States
What they do:
Building drone swarms that hunt hidden enemies.
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
We visually monitor space objects for governments and defense
Quick facts:
What they do:
The new American reinsurance company.
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HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
What they do:
USA-made magnetics for robotics and defense.
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HQ: Boston, MA, United States
What they do:
Discover novel defense related materials/molecules.
Quick facts:
HQ: Haifa, Israel
What they do:
Kill the drone, keep the jet. Reusable unmanned interceptors.
Quick facts:
HQ: Denver, CO, United States
What they do:
End-to-end Simulation for Defense Autonomy
Quick facts:
HQ: San Francisco, CA, United States
Questions and answers
How many startups are on this list?
There are 46 startups on this list, last updated on Oct 15, 2026.
Which of them are hiring?
14 of them are hiring right now, including Icarus, 9 Mothers, and Deepnight.
Which of them have the largest teams?
By team size: Onebrief (200 employees), Icarus (50 employees), and Isengard Industries Inc (30 employees).
Which of them raised money recently?
Latest rounds: Onebrief — $151M Equity (Oct 2026).
Where are they based?
The biggest hubs are San Francisco (22), Los Angeles (5), and Austin (2).