Startups & Funding
Nominal hits $1 billion valuation with $80 million funding
Nominal raised an $80 million Series B extension round at a $1 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to $155M over the last 10 months.
On Thursday, Nominal announced that it has raised an $80 million Series B extension round—a follow-on funding round to its existing Series B—at a $1 billion valuation. Venture capital firm Founders Fund led the investment. The new capital brings the total raised by the three-and-a-half-year-old, L.A.-based company to $155M over the last 10 months. This follow-on round follows a $75 million Series B round in September, which was led by Sequoia.
Other investors participating in the funding round include:
- Sequoia
- General Catalyst
- Lux Capital
- Red Glass
- Lightspeed
Nominal provides software that helps hardware engineers test their designs, operating as a provider of essential tools—a “picks-and-shovels” business model—for the defense sector. The company has scaled its customer base, landing four of the five largest U.S. defense contractors as customers in the last 10 months.
The investment was a preemptive deal, meaning the investment was made before a formal fundraising process began. The transaction was driven by connections between Nominal CEO and co-founder Cameron McCord and Founders Fund partner Trae Stephens, who is also a co-founder of defense technology company Anduril. McCord, a former U.S. Navy submarine officer, is an alum of Anduril, which is also a customer of Nominal. McCord told Bloomberg and confirmed to TechCrunch that Stephens, who also serves as Anduril’s executive chairman, led this as a preemptive deal.
With the fresh capital, Nominal plans to expand its hardware testing software beyond defense tech and into industrial sectors, including automotive and robotics. The company has already established customer relationships outside of defense, including Pratt Miller Motorsports, which is the Corvette Racing Team, and nuclear energy company Antares.
Why it matters
Nominal’s rapid ascent to unicorn status underscores the growing demand for specialized software in defense and industrial hardware testing, signaling a shift toward broader commercial applications.