Austin’s Smack Technologies raises $61 million Series B, backed by Costanoa and First In, to develop AI decision tools for the US military
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| Source: Techmeme | Original article
Austin-based Smack Technologies, a defense startup creating AI decision‑making tools for the U.S. military, secured a $61 million Series B round led by Costanoa and First In.
Austin‑based Smack Technologies announced a $61 million Series B round on Monday, with Costanoa and First In leading the investment. The funding, its second round in 2026, follows an earlier $32 million raise and is aimed at scaling the startup’s artificial‑intelligence decision‑making platform for the U.S. Department of Defense and allied forces.
Smack’s “Frontier AI Lab for National Security” builds proprietary models that compress the military decision cycle, delivering fast, accurate recommendations across all echelons and warfighting functions. The company says its tools are especially valuable in environments where communications are heavily jammed, helping combat planners generate and evaluate options in real time. Rapid interest from the Pentagon has outpaced Smack’s ability to hire, prompting the new capital to expand its engineering and data‑science teams.
The raise underscores a broader surge of venture capital into defense AI, as policymakers and industry leaders seek ways to accelerate battlefield decision‑making without compromising human oversight. Investors are betting that AI‑driven planning tools will become a staple of modern warfare, complementing traditional command structures.
Going forward, observers will watch how quickly Smack can integrate its software into active military exercises and procurement pipelines, whether the Pentagon formalizes contracts for its models, and how the startup navigates emerging regulatory scrutiny around autonomous decision‑support systems. The next milestones will likely be field trials with U.S. forces and the hiring of additional talent to meet the pace of demand.
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