Nominal on Thursday announced a fresh $80 million Series B extension round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Founders Fund. This followed the company’s $75 million Series B round led by Sequoia in September.
The company offers software that helps hardware engineers test their designs and began as a picks-and-shovels type of startup for the defense industry. The three-and-a-half-year-old, L.A.-based company says that in the last 10 months, it has landed four of the five largest defense contractors as customers.
CEO and co-founder Cameron McCord (pictured) is a former U.S. Navy submarine officer and an alum of defense tech company Anduril, which is also one of Nominal’s marquee customers. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Anduril co-founder and executive chairman Trae Stephens, who is also a Founders Fund partner, led this as a preemptive deal, McCord told Bloomberg, and confirmed to TechCrunch. Sequoia, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Red Glass, and Lightspeed also participated.
Next up, Nominal plans to expand beyond defense tech and into industrial sectors like automotive, robotics, and other industries. And it’s made a good start. The company tells TechCrunch that some of its other customers include Pratt Miller Motorsports (the Corvette Racing Team), and nuclear energy company Antares.
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