Benchmark has led a $25 million seed round into Furientis, a one‑year‑old startup aiming to mass‑produce interceptor missiles and already holding a funded Pentagon contract to build mid‑range interceptors. The company was valued at $125 million, according to a person familiar with the company.
Furientis follows a $5 million pre‑seed announced in May. Benchmark general partner Chetan Puttagunta said, “What they accomplished with just a pre‑seed round was nothing short of remarkable.” Puttagunta added that the team manufactured prototypes with the $5 million and had already conducted a dozen launches by the time Benchmark invested.
The startup was founded by Brody Franzen and Aris Simsarian. Franzen previously served as deputy chief engineer at Virgin Galactic and later joined Castelion, a hypersonic missile startup valued at $13 billion. Simsarian led rocket engine testing at Virgin Orbit.
Franzen has said the founders started Furientis after concluding the U.S. military faces a severe shortage of “exquisite” missiles—each of which can cost about $3 million—to counter cheaper adversary threats. He noted the U.S. Navy receives roughly 300 to 500 interceptor missiles annually, while China claims a production rate of 3,000 anti‑ship cruise missiles a month. “We’re being outproduced by a factor of 100 plus,” he said.
Rather than matching the performance of best‑in‑class interceptors, Furientis is designing systems that can be assembled quickly from readily available components so each unit costs a fraction of legacy interceptors. The startup says it has been testing missiles in the field on a bi‑weekly basis, operates from a facility in Los Angeles, and takes prototypes to White Sands, New Mexico for trial launches.
Furientis’ long‑term manufacturing goal is to produce 1,000 systems per year in each factory. The company is part of a broader effort—including larger defense startups such as Anduril, Castelion and Shield AI, and traditional primes modernizing manufacturing—to help the government restock depleted missile inventories.
Puttagunta said he is not deterred by competition: “I think there’s opportunity for lots more companies in this sector.”
