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The Austin Defense & Space Ecosystem
Austin-area companies, funding and hiring
20 organizations pinned
What is the Austin defense tech ecosystem?
Austin's defense scene is built around autonomy and counter-drone hardware: Saronic's autonomous ships, Firefly Aerospace's launch and lunar programs in Leander, CesiumAstro's satellite payloads in Bee Cave, and a cluster of small teams building turrets, micro-missiles and interceptors to defeat drones. The Army's modernization command and UT Austin's Applied Research Laboratories anchor the government and research side.
- companies in the table below
- 36
- companies in the table below
- disclosed equity in 2026 so far, after $2.13B in 2025
- $4.33B
- disclosed equity in 2026 so far, after $2.13B in 2025
- federal prime obligations to 1 of these companies
- $4.6M
- federal prime obligations to 1 of these companies
- open roles in the region on public job boards
- 128
- open roles in the region on public job boards
Figures cover the companies in the table, across Travis, Williamson and Hays counties.
Companies
Startups and suppliers headquartered in the region. Filter by what they build, or sort by funding, federal obligations or open roles.
| Location | Builds | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 9 Mothers Acoustic-cued counter-drone turret (Edda) | Austin | Counter-drone & weapons | — | — | — |
 Aalo Atomics Factory-built small modular nuclear reactors | Austin | Energy & materials | $133M | — | — |
 Aeon Industrial Autonomous targeting and tactical weapon systems | Austin | Counter-drone & weapons | $16.6M | — | — |
 Allen Control Systems Bullfrog automated counter-drone gun turret | Austin | Counter-drone & weapons | $242M | — | — |
 Anametric Chip-scale quantum photonics for secure communications | Austin | Software & AI | $3.3M | $4.6M | — |
Apptronik Apollo general-purpose humanoid robots | Austin | Autonomy & drones | $935M | — | 64 |
 Asgard Aerospace Advanced materials and rapid aerospace engineering | Austin | Space | — | — | — |
 Base Power Home battery backup and distributed power in Texas | Austin | Energy & materials | $2.20B | — | — |
 Bastion Security-compliance software for cleared contractors | Austin | Software & AI | — | — | — |
 Bravo Ordnance Additively manufactured warheads and explosives | Austin | Counter-drone & weapons | $3.0M | — | — |
 CesiumAstro Software-defined satellites, payloads and terminals | Bee Cave | Space | $456M | — | — |
 Doodle Labs Mesh Rider radios for drones and robots | Austin | Autonomy & drones | — | — | 4 |
 Driftline Technical Electronic warfare, communications and cyber services | Austin | Software & AI | — | — | — |
 ElementUSA Gallium and scandium recovery from bauxite residue | Cedar Park | Energy & materials | — | — | — |
 Elysium Robotics LLC Artificial-muscle fiber actuators for robots | Round Rock | Autonomy & drones | — | — | — |
 Fathom5 Secure cyber-physical systems for ships and industry | Austin | Software & AI | — | — | — |
 Firefly Aerospace Launch vehicles, lunar landers and in-space vehicles | Leander | Space | — | — | — |
 Galadyne Liquid-fueled strike and intercept missiles | Austin | Counter-drone & weapons | $4.8M | — | — |
 Gale Project Technologies AI drone detection and early warning | Austin | Counter-drone & weapons | — | — | — |
 Hexium Laser isotope enrichment for nuclear fuel | Austin | Energy & materials | $17.5M | — | — |
Hyliion KARNO linear generators for distributed power | Cedar Park | Energy & materials | — | — | — |
ICON 3D-printed construction, including military barracks | Austin | Energy & materials | $451M | — | 60 |
Infinitum Air-core printed-circuit-board electric motors | Austin | Energy & materials | — | — | — |
 Knox Systems FedRAMP-authorized cloud for software vendors | Austin | Software & AI | $31.5M | — | — |
Total raised is disclosed equity across all rounds. Federal $ is prime-award obligations linked to the company. Open roles are listings in the region on the company's public job board.
Large Contractors
Large companies with headquarters or major campuses in the Austin area.
| Company | Location | What happens there |
|---|---|---|
Oracle | Austin | Headquarters; government and defense cloud (Oracle Cloud for defense) |
 | Austin (Parmer Austin Business Park) | 390,000 sq ft electronics campus opened 2022 |
Government & Research
Army, state and university organizations that fund, buy from or work with the region's companies.
| Organization | Location | Type | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command | Austin | Government | Army command formed from Army Futures Command and TRADOC |
 | Austin | Government | Army venture-style lab for working with startups |
Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin | Austin (Pickle Research Campus) | Research | DoD university-affiliated research center: sonar, acoustics, space |
Texas Space Commission | Austin | Government | State grants for space companies |
How Much Private Capital Is Flowing In?
Austin's defense and space companies have raised large rounds since 2024, led by autonomous ships, launch and lunar landers, and counter-drone hardware.
The largest recent rounds: Saronic's $1.75B (2026), Base Power's $1.00B (2026), Base Power's $1.00B (2025), Saronic's $600M (2025) and Apptronik's $520M (2026).
| Year | Disclosed equity | Rounds |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $15.0M | 1 |
| 2021 | $277M | 2 |
| 2022 | $87.4M | 5 |
| 2023 | $170M | 9 |
| 2024 | $327M | 9 |
| 2025 | $2.13B | 16 |
| 2026 to date | $4.33B | 14 |
Disclosed equity rounds only; debt, grants, secondary sales and public offerings are excluded, and a tranche counted inside a later headline round is counted once.
Who Are the Government Customers?
Federal work in the region is concentrated in a few companies, with the Navy, Air Force, Army and NASA as the main buyers.
1 companies in the table hold $4.6M in federal prime obligations. Obligations are money committed, not contract ceilings; subcontracts and classified work don't appear.
| Awarding agency | Obligated |
|---|---|
| U.S. Air Force | $4.3M |
| U.S. Army | $250K |
Who Is Hiring?
Autonomy, space and counter-drone companies list the most open roles in the area.
3 companies list 128 open roles in the region on their public job boards; Apptronik, ICON, Doodle Labs have the most. Companies without a public job board are not counted.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where are defense tech companies in Austin?
Most are in the City of Austin. Firefly Aerospace is in Leander, CesiumAstro in Bee Cave, Perseus Defense in Buda, Elysium Robotics in Round Rock and Noveon Magnetics in San Marcos.
Which government organizations are in Austin?
The Army Transformation and Training Command, formed in 2025 from Army Futures Command and TRADOC, is headquartered in Austin, along with the Army Applications Laboratory, UT Austin's Applied Research Laboratories and the Texas Space Commission.
Does this guide include Round Rock, Cedar Park and San Marcos?
Yes. It covers Travis, Williamson and Hays counties, which include Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Georgetown, Pflugerville, Buda, Kyle and San Marcos. San Antonio is not included.
Where do the company figures in this guide come from?
Funding, federal award and hiring figures come from the published DefDex company records. The company table and map use the same filters, and the figures refresh when a new data build is published.
Sources & methodology
- Companies: organizations headquartered in the region with defense, space, national-security or defense-relevant energy work, from the DefDex company database.
- Locations: company sites, SEC filings, USAspending recipient records and government pages; pins are geocoded business addresses or campuses.
- Funding: disclosed equity rounds in DefDex funding records. Federal obligations: USAspending prime awards linked to each company by its registered UEIs.
- Hiring: public job boards; companies without a public board are not counted.