Reston Va.,-based Razor’s Edge, which focuses on national security and aerospace startups, has led a $70 million Series B for X-Bow Systems, with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, Bethesda, Md.-based aerospace giant’s the strategic investing unit. Other investors included Boeing Ventures, Crosslink Capital and Balerion Space Ventures.
X-Bow, based in New Albuquerque, N.M., makes non-traditional advanced manufactured solid rocket motors and hypersonics technologies. It plans to use the funding to complete its gigafactory campus in Luling, Texas, besides advancing its hypersonic and solid rocket motor programs.
Early Mover
“The Ukraine conflict has exposed the significant gaps that exist in the SRM industrial base. X-Bow’s team identified these critical gaps well ahead of the conflict and has built a sizable lead over other emerging suppliers,” said Mark Spoto, co-founder and managing partner at Razor’s Edge, and an X-Bow board member. Spoto was previously an aerospace engineer serving the US Air Force’s Titan IV rocket program. Later he was a partner at the technology law firm Cooley LLP.
X-Bow, a dual-use technology company, has production facilities in Texas, California, Alabama, Utah, Colorado and Washington, D.C. It has been led since 2016 by Jason Hundley, a former Northrop Grumman engineer.
“X-Bow Systems has experienced significant growth and success in the past year, securing multiple contracts for SRMs, energetics and launch services,” said Hundley, adding that the funding would address critical industrial base and defense needs.
Focus on 21st Century Tech
Last November, the company received an interim funding round led by Lockheed Martin Ventures, with participation from Razor’s Edge and others.
The interim financing was part of Lockheed Martin’s strategy to add anti-fragility in the solid rocket motor industrial base, Chris Moran, vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin Ventures, then said. The funding would bring “new technology and affordability in this sector, not only for our products but for the U.S. industrial base as a whole,” he added.
Lockheed Martin Ventures was launched in 2007 with $100 million to back startups developing strategic “21st century technologies.” It has since grown in size to $400 million.
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“The No. 1 goal is to access this tech, build up the defense industrial base and then use these folks as suppliers to programs that we work on,” Moran, a Silicon Valley veteran who joined Lockheed in 2016, told Business Journal in an interview last year.
In 2022, Lockheed made 17 investments. Its portfolio size has since grown to over 60. It typically invests between $2 million and $5 million in individual startups. Its recent investments include Liquid Instruments, Helicity Space, Firestorm Labs, South 8 Technologies, Calypso AI and Agile Space Industries.
Razor’s Edge, which backs national security startups and others pursuing high-growth commercial markets, has raised three funds totaling $555 million. Its portfolio companies include Altamira, HawkEye 360, GoSecure, Proscia and Veros Technologies.
