Defense Unicorns valued at $1 billion in latest funding round

Jan 13 (Reuters) - Defense Unicorns, which is a software provider to the U.S. Department of War, said on Tuesday it has completed a Series B funding round worth $136 million, bringing its valuation to over $1 billion.

The funding round, which was led by Bain Capital, saw participation from Ansa Capital, Sapphire Ventures and David Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, among others.

In 2025, U.S. defense technology companies roughly doubled their share of Pentagon contracts. However, many Silicon Valley-backed firms are now facing challenges as they move from being startups to heavyweights capable of building weapons at scale.

Colorado-based Defense Unicorns, founded in 2021, focuses on air-gapped software.

This involves delivering, installing and updating software in an environment physically and logically isolated from external networks, including the public internet.

The company provides services to the U.S. Navy, Army, Air Force, and Space Force.