Editor’s note: Hermeus burst onto the scene with a promise of Mach 5 flight, cutting travel time between New York and Paris in 90 minutes and speeding up the face-to-face interactions that drive the global economy. More recently, its journey has focused more on unmanned defense applications than reducing transportation time for well-heeled business travelers. Now, the newly minted unicorn is moving its operational headquarters to California to focus on speedier prototyping, even as it keeps its ‘ITP’ factory in metro Atlanta as a production hub.
This article originally appeared on Hypepotamus. It is published on Global Atlanta as part of our content partnership with the Southeast’s top source for innovation news. Sign up for Hypepotamus newsletters here.
Defense aviation company Hermeus hit the $1 billion “unicorn” mark this week following the announcement of a $350 million Series C ($200 million in venture capital and a $150 million debt financing).
On top of the capital injection (led by returning investor Khosla Ventures), the Atlanta-founded company announced it is packing up and moving its HQ to El Segundo, the city directly south of the Los Angeles International Airport.
Hermes will keep its facility open in Atlanta, shifting its focus to production. No layoffs in Atlanta are planned, per reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The company is actively hiring for engineering talent both in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Hermes is building unmanned aircrafts for national security missions, working with the Department of War and other governmental organizations. Other investors in the company include NASA, US Air Force, and Sam Altman. The team includes more than 275 employees spread across Atlanta, Los Angeles, DC, and Jacksonville.
“Speed is life for us,” said AJ Piplica, Founder and CEO of Hermeus, in a press release. “This new funding lets us build multiple aircraft at the same time and scale our manufacturing capabilities, adding more hardware richness and robustness to our program. That accelerates our path to ramjet-powered flight. We are grateful for the support of our long-term partners who share our vision of building fast planes fast. Together, we’re bringing scalable, asymmetric capabilities to our national security customers.”
Hypepotamus has covered Hermeus’ growth over the years, including its 2019 seed round and its 2020 $16 million Series A round.
The company has had several successful test flights in the last few months. Its focus has been on rapid testing to improve on its advanced hypersonic development.
Atlanta’s Aerospace & Space Scene
Aerospace is the State of Georgia’s number one export and the second largest manufacturing industry, generating close to $60 billion in economic impact.
The state is home to over 800 aerospace companies, with the Atlanta area serving as the home base for companies like Atomic-6, Reditus Space, Generation Orbit, Space Works, and Blink Astro.
The Metro area is also home to aerospace giants like Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. (Savannah), Lockheed Martin (Marietta), and Delta Air Lines (Atlanta).
But Hermeus isn’t the only locally-grown startup in the industry that Atlanta has lost this year.
Last month, Mantis Space, co-founded by a team with deep ties to Metro Atlanta and Georgia Tech, came out of stealth and announced it was opening its headquarters in New Mexico after securing a mix of venture capital and state-funded grants.
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