Hermeus Reaches $1 Billion Valuation with $350 Million Raise to Build Today's Fastest Aircraft for the American Warfighter

The round, led by Khosla Ventures, accelerates the delivery of high-Mach unmanned aircraft for national security missions.

LOS ANGELES, April 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Hermeus, a defense aviation company developing high-Mach unmanned aircraft, today announced it has closed $350 million in Series C financing. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with continued support from Canaan Partners, Founders Fund, RTX Ventures, Bling Capital, and In-Q-Tel. Joining as new investors are Cox Enterprises and their venture fund Socium Ventures, Destiny Tech100, Georgia Tech Foundation, 137 Ventures, GSBackers, among others. Debt capital is being provided by Silicon Valley Bank, a division of First Citizens Bank, Pinegrove Venture Partners, Hercules Capital, and Trinity Capital.

This funding provides the strategic capital to move from prototyping to mission-ready, high-Mach platforms, keeping Hermeus on a path to deliver the fastest unmanned aircraft flying today. With the successful flight of Quarterhorse Mk 2.1, supersonic flight is now imminent. The team is now scaling to a fleet of three F-16 scale aircraft, accelerating our path to Mach 3 and starting customer payload integration.

To hit these milestones, Hermeus is growing its prototyping footprint with a new headquarters in El Segundo, California, while the Atlanta facility shifts its focus to production.

"Speed is life for us," said AJ Piplica, Founder and CEO of Hermeus. "This new funding lets us build multiple aircraft at the same time and scale our manufacturing capabilities, adding more hardware richness and robustness to our program. That accelerates our path to ramjet-powered flight. We are grateful for the support of our long-term partners who share our vision of building fast planes fast. Together, we're bringing scalable, asymmetric capabilities to our national security customers."

Hermeus is utilizing a hardware-first execution model to shorten timelines from design to deployment. This approach validates sustained flight into the high-Mach regime under operational conditions to meet modern defense aviation challenges.

"We've been believers in Hermeus from the start, and we couldn't be happier to lead this Series C," said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. "The team is on a clear trajectory to solve a critical capability gap for their customers by building, flying, and iterating at a pace that matches the modern battlefield."

"We've had a front-row seat to watch this team execute at the pace and precision this mission demands," said Andrew Davis, Managing Partner, Socium Ventures. "This Series C marks an important inflection point for the company. Cox Enterprises and our venture fund, Socium Ventures are proud to support them as they accomplish significant milestones this year."

This round brings Hermeus' total capital raised to over $500 million, reaching a $1 billion post-money valuation. This financing, comprising $200 million in equity and $150 million in debt, accelerates Hermeus' path toward becoming a leader in defense aviation.

About Hermeus

Hermeus is a venture-backed defense aviation company reclaiming the lost art of rapid iterative prototyping to build the fastest aircraft in the world today. By prioritizing relentless hardware iteration, we deliver high-speed systems at the pace of the modern battlefield. We work with the Department of War to provide the high-speed capabilities our nation and its allies need to maintain a durable, asymmetric advantage.

Media Contact

Farshad Shadloo, VP, Marketing & Communications 
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Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Hermeus' plans to build and test aircraft, its manufacturing capabilities, the anticipated use of proceeds from the Series C financing, and the company's future defense applications. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Hermeus undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Hermeus