Molly O’Shea(@MollySOShea):ICYMI: This is the year of @shaunmmaguire › SpaceX IPO ($1.77T) › The Boring Co (rumored $4B raise at $20B valuation) › Neros $250M Series C ($2.5B) › Valar Atomics $1B Series B ($6B) › Mach Industries $300M Series C ($1.8B) › Decart $300M Series B (~$4B) › Factory $150M Series C ($1.5B) › Glow $180M total funding ($1.2B) › Corma $60M Seed › Sable $45M Series A › Engram $98M funding round ($600M) "Shaun is amazing. He was so far ahead of the curve on hard tech in general." "It really is a true passion for him. A lot of VCs have jumped on the hype train recently, but when I met Shaun 3 years ago, even before he invested in Neros, he was explaining to me his thesis of hard tech and why it's so important to invest in manufacturing, and how manufacturing has left America, but we need to bring it back." "All of these things that are really, really popular ideas now, Shaun was way ahead of the curve on."

2026.08.11 20:12

ICYMI: This is the year of @shaunmmaguire › SpaceX IPO ($1.77T) › The Boring Co (rumored $4B raise at $20B valuation) › Neros $250M Series C ($2.5B) › Valar Atomics $1B Series B ($6B) › Mach Industries $300M Series C ($1.8B) › Decart $300M Series B (~$4B) › Factory $150M Series C ($1.5B) › Glow $180M total funding ($1.2B) › Corma $60M Seed › Sable $45M Series A › Engram $98M funding round ($600M) "Shaun is amazing. He was so far ahead of the curve on hard tech in general." "It really is a true passion for him. A lot of VCs have jumped on the hype train recently, but when I met Shaun 3 years ago, even before he invested in Neros, he was explaining to me his thesis of hard tech and why it's so important to invest in manufacturing, and how manufacturing has left America, but we need to bring it back." "All of these things that are really, really popular ideas now, Shaun was way ahead of the curve on." — Neros CEO @soren_ma

Molly O’Shea@MollySOShea

2026.08.11 17:00

BREAKING: Neros Raises $250M Series C at $2.5 Billion Valuation FULL INTERVIEW "America should have the capability to have factories that can make millions of drones per year because that's what modern conflict demands." Co-Founder & CEO Soren Monroe-Anderson (@soren_ma) takes us inside the new 250K sq ft Torrance factory. Currently shipping ~1,250 drones a week. Sized for 1 million a year by 2028. Fresh off a $500M Army IDIQ for 100,000s of drones over 5 years This round was led by @shaunmmaguire of @sequoia & American Strategic Technology Fund w/ participation from Interlagos, Valor Equity Partners, Allen & Company, Thiel Capital, Spark Capital, & Mantis With this capital @neros_tech is now going multi-product with: › Archer AI — Autonomous strike drone › Bandit — Counter-drone interceptor › Marksman — Ruggedized operator handset › Useful Autonomy — Framework for evaluating autonomy claims ICYMI: China builds an estimated tens of millions of drones a year & arms both sides in Ukraine. America is way behind, representing just 1% of the world's small drones. Neros was the first FPV maker to win Blue UAS certification, meaning a fully NDAA-compliant supply chain with no reliance on China. "You can look at our boards, you can look at all of the chips that go onto our boards. Those will not have ever touched China." 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Soren Monroe-Anderson, Co-Founder & CEO at Neros Technologies (01:02) $250M Series C at a $2.5B valuation (03:34) Working with Shawn Maguire (04:25) Inside the Army's $500M drone contract (05:38) How the Ukraine war rewrote modern combat (08:05) The Interceptor drones taking over the battlefield (10:31) How many drones China really makes in a year (12:55) Is it even possible to build a drone without China? (16:09) China is arming both sides of the war (17:08) What actually separates Neros from every other drone company (19:55) The biggest BS claims in defense tech right now (20:51) Why most defense startups never actually deploy? (22:58) Neros’s growth to over 250 employees (24:00) Why defense startups need to screen for spies (25:29) The Talent bottleneck slowing down American manufacturing (26:51) How AI is quietly reshaping engineers (29:43) The biggest myth about re-industrializing America (30:50) Neros's plan to build drones with U.S. allies (32:53) The brutal tradeoff between speed and scale (34:51) Why Neros keeps a permanent office in Ukraine? (35:52) What actually happens on a modern battlefield? (37:41) How Starlink is changing drone warfare (39:14) What happens when a drone loses its signal (40:41) Soren’s learnings from Kelly Johnson

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