Furientis, a Los Angeles start-up that designs low-cost interceptor missiles, has raised a $25m seed round led by Benchmark. The company announced the round on 6 October 2026, and Benchmark general partner Chetan Puttagunta is joining its board.
The round values Furientis at $125m, according to TechCrunch, which cited a person familiar with the company. Furientis did not disclose a valuation, and no other investors were named.
Alongside the funding, the company said it had won its first funded government contract: a prototyping Other Transaction Agreement with the Department of War for a 100-mile-range interceptor intended for homeland defence. The value and timeline of the contract were not disclosed.
“Furientis exists to resupply our critical deficiency in defensive munitions.”Brody Franzen, Co-Founder and CEO, Furientis
What Furientis does
Furientis, whose name TechCrunch said is Latin for "of fury", builds mid-range interceptor missiles. Rather than aiming for the best possible performance, it designs its vehicles to be built quickly and cheaply from readily available parts, so that they cost a fraction of legacy interceptors.
According to Pulse 2.0, the company judges each component on whether it can be produced fast enough to support 1,000 interceptors a year per factory, and it targets final assembly in under an hour per vehicle. It uses commercial off-the-shelf parts where they meet requirements and makes its solid rocket motors and seekers in-house, which The Defense Post said reduces its reliance on specialised suppliers.
The company flies prototypes roughly every two weeks and changes its designs based on the flight data. TechCrunch reported that it had completed about a dozen launches, taking prototypes to White Sands, New Mexico, before Benchmark invested. Under the new contract, Furientis will keep developing the interceptor and show that the flight vehicle meets the department's requirements.
Who is behind it
Furientis was co-founded by chief executive Brody Franzen and Aris Simsarian. TechCrunch reported that Franzen was previously deputy chief engineer at Virgin Galactic and later worked at Castelion, a hypersonic missile start-up, while Simsarian led rocket engine testing at Virgin Orbit. TechCrunch described the company as about a year old.
Franzen told TechCrunch that the US was being outproduced "by a factor of 100 plus". He cited exquisite missiles costing around $3m each and said the US Navy receives about 300 to 500 interceptors a year. In the company's announcement he described the shortage of defensive munitions as a production and manufacturing problem.
Who invested
Benchmark led the round, and coverage described the deal as the firm's first investment in a pure defence company. Puttagunta told TechCrunch that what the team achieved with only a pre-seed round was "nothing short of remarkable" and that he saw room for many more companies in the sector, where Furientis competes with Anduril, Castelion and Shield AI.
The funding so far
The seed round follows a $5m pre-seed round announced in May 2026, which TechCrunch said paid for prototype manufacturing. Investors in that round were not named in the coverage.
Furientis said the new money will go towards vertically integrated manufacturing, more flight-test operations and hiring engineering and manufacturing staff at its Los Angeles site. The Defense Post noted that the Pentagon is looking for cheaper interceptors that can be made in larger numbers as demand for air and missile defence grows.
Company website: furientis.com