Castelion company profile: valuation, funding & revenue

This Castelion company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Castelion works in defense technology, with a focus on hypersonic weapons. It was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Torrance, California, United States. Its latest valuation on record is US$13 billion (August 2026). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.

Revenue

Funding history

Castelion timeline

Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.

• 2022 — Castelion is founded in Torrance by Bryon Hargis (CEO) and former SpaceX engineers.
• Aug 2026 — Series C: About US$1B (US$800M equity plus credit facility), valuing the company at US$13B. Investors: JPMorgan Strategic Investment Group, Andreessen Horowitz, Carlyle (leads); Lightspeed, Lavrock, Altimeter, General Catalyst, Interlagos, T. Rowe Price.
• August 2026 — US military contracts: More than US$500 million secured over 18 months (company-stated).

Investors

Overview

Castelion builds hypersonic weapons: missiles that fly at more than five times the speed of sound and can manoeuvre, making them very hard to intercept. Its main product, Blackbeard, is designed to be produced in large numbers at a far lower cost than traditional hypersonic programmes, and to be launched from existing military platforms such as the Army's HIMARS rocket launchers. The company's thesis is that the United States has fallen behind China and Russia in fielding hypersonic weapons, largely because of slow, expensive development, and that a startup applying commercial aerospace methods can close the gap.

Castelion was founded in 2022 by Bryon Hargis, the CEO, and a team of engineers who previously worked at SpaceX, where they learned to iterate quickly with frequent test flights. The company is based in Torrance, California, in the Los Angeles area's aerospace cluster, and has built test and production facilities in New Mexico.

Approach: test often, build cheap

Traditional defense programmes often spend years on design and analysis before flight tests, and each test can cost tens of millions of dollars. Castelion borrows the SpaceX approach: design simple, build quickly, fly frequently, learn from failures and improve. It uses commercially available components where possible and designs for manufacturing from the start. The goal is a weapon cheap enough to be bought in hundreds or thousands, rather than a handful of exquisite missiles that commanders are reluctant to use.

Blackbeard

Blackbeard is a hypersonic glide or boost missile intended for long-range, precise strikes on time-sensitive targets. Designed to fit within existing launch systems, it could be deployed without new platforms, which speeds up adoption. In 2026 the Defense Department signed a testing-and-validation agreement with Castelion that created a framework for buying at least 500 Blackbeard missiles a year for up to five years, and the US Navy placed a firm order. Castelion says it has secured more than US$500 million in US military contracts in 18 months.

Funding

Castelion raised early funding from Lavrock Ventures, First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and others, followed by a Series B of about US$350 million in 2025. In August 2026 it closed a Series C of about US$1 billion at a US$13 billion valuation. The total comprised about US$800 million in equity, led by JPMorgan's Strategic Investment Group, Andreessen Horowitz and Carlyle, with Lightspeed, Lavrock, Altimeter, General Catalyst, Interlagos and T. Rowe Price, plus a committed revolving credit facility. Most of the money will expand Blackbeard production at its Project Ranger site in Sandoval County, New Mexico.

Competition

Castelion competes with large defense contractors developing hypersonic weapons, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon (RTX) and Northrop Grumman, whose programmes have faced delays and high costs. Other defense startups such as Ursa Major, which makes rocket motors, and Hermeus, which builds hypersonic aircraft, operate in related areas. Broader defense technology companies such as Anduril are also building low-cost munitions. Castelion's differentiation is its focus on producing hypersonic weapons at scale and cost.

Castelion at a glance

Castelion is a Torrance, California, defense company founded in 2022 by Bryon Hargis and former SpaceX engineers. It builds the Blackbeard hypersonic missile, designed for low-cost mass production. It says it has won more than US$500 million in US military contracts, and in August 2026 raised about US$1 billion at a US$13 billion valuation, led by JPMorgan, Andreessen Horowitz and Carlyle.

What makes hypersonic weapons different

Ballistic missiles also travel at hypersonic speeds, but follow predictable arcs that defenses can track. Hypersonic glide vehicles and cruise missiles fly lower and manoeuvre during flight, which makes them harder to detect and intercept. Building them is difficult: at these speeds, air friction creates extreme heat that can destroy materials, and guidance systems must work through plasma that can disrupt communications. China and Russia have deployed hypersonic weapons; the US has tested several programmes but fielded few. That gap is the opportunity Castelion is targeting.

The new defense industrial base

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown that modern conflicts consume huge quantities of munitions, and that Western stockpiles and production lines are too small. Pentagon leaders have called for more suppliers and faster production. Venture investors have responded by funding defense startups in areas from drones to munitions and manufacturing. These companies promise speed and lower costs, but they must navigate complex procurement rules, rigorous testing and long contracting cycles. Our guide to defense tech startups explains this shift in more detail.

Ethical and policy considerations

Weapons companies raise questions that most technology companies don't. Investors, employees and the public may weigh national security arguments against concerns about arms races and escalation. Export controls limit where such weapons can be sold. Readers researching Castelion should consider these dimensions alongside the financial story.

Questions for analysts

• How many successful flight tests has Blackbeard completed, and under what conditions?
• Are contracts firm production orders or agreements that depend on future funding?
• How quickly can production capacity scale, and what limits it?
• How dependent is the company on a single product and customer?

Why cost per missile matters

Military planners increasingly talk about "affordable mass": having enough weapons to sustain a long conflict, not just a few high-end systems. Some existing long-range missiles cost several million dollars each, and hypersonic programmes have been far more expensive. If an adversary can field many cheaper weapons, a force with only a small stockpile of costly ones is at a disadvantage. Castelion's pitch is that a hypersonic weapon priced closer to conventional munitions changes the calculation, allowing commanders to plan around hundreds of shots rather than dozens.

Latest developments (October 2026)

Since its August 2026 US$1 billion Series C at a reported US$13 billion valuation, Castelion has won further US Navy work on its Blackbeard hypersonic missile. In September 2026 Defense News reported that the Navy awarded the company about US$200 million for Blackbeard production and fielding with carrier strike groups, according to Defense News. Other reports describe an order for early operational capability weapons to be completed by 2028. The company is expanding manufacturing at its New Mexico campus.

What to watch

Watch flight test results, conversion of framework agreements into production contracts, expansion of the New Mexico site, defense budget decisions and competition from established contractors.

Takeaways

Defense buyers may gain access to affordable hypersonic capability sooner. Founders can see how SpaceX-style iteration is being applied to defense. Investors should weigh a high valuation against the concentration of revenue in one government customer.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.

1. The Next Web