Pentagon pressure to move AI faster drives Smack’s new funding round, CEO says

Smack Technologies, a defense-technology startup focused on AI decision-making tools for the military, has secured $61 million in Series B funding to accelerate the production of its flagship product, Omega, and develop wearable AI hardware suited for battlefield use. The influx of capital comes months after the Defense Department labeled Anthropic as a supply-chain risk in March, prompting military branches to seek more diverse AI vendors and turning startups like Smack from overlooked options into valuable assets.

The newly acquired funding comes as a result of pressure from the Marine Corps and Navy, co-founder and CEO Andy Markoff said. These branches are eager for Smack to speed up production due to concerns about future conflicts. Markoff believes that in a decentralized environment where troops won't be able to constantly relay data back to well-connected operations centers, warfare will increasingly be fought in a decentralized and communications-degraded setting.

In such a scenario, most tactical decisions must be made on the battlefield before data reaches centralized systems.

Smack's core technology, Omega, streamlines the Marine Corps' fires-planning process by determining what targets to hit and how, and adapts in real time when the battle plan is disrupted. In July, Smack secured two prototyping contracts, worth more than seven figures, from the Joint Fires Network and the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab. The Series B round of funding was led by Costanoa Ventures, First In, Point72 Ventures, and Geodesic Capital.

The money will be directed towards boosting Omega production and developing Alpha, a flexible AI forearm display meant to replace the improvised whiteboards troops have traditionally carried in the field. Smack currently operates from an office in Austin, Texas, with plans to reach 10 to 20 prototype units within the next six months. The company has grown from 19 employees in April to 51, with ambitions to expand to around 85 by the end of the year.