Peter Thiel secures for Anduril what could be the biggest tour of the year

Defense technology

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund is leading a $15 billion round in defense technology.

US defense technology company Anduril is about to close one of its biggest venture capital deals of the year, according to The Information. The company is supposed to be close to securing an investment of up to $1.5 billion, equivalent to about 16 billion Norwegian kroner.

Reports the information.

the main points:

• The investment is led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Sands Capital
• The valuation is US$12.5 billion before cash and US$14 billion after cash
• Anduril had sales of approximately $500 million last year, double the figure the year before.
• The company aims to achieve annual revenues of $1 billion by 2026

The Founders Fund, which has been involved since the beginning, will invest $400 million in the round, according to sources. Sands Capital is a new investor and is known for investing in companies before they go public.

Anduril, founded by, among others, Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, develops advanced defense systems such as missile launchers, drones and high-tech weapons systems. The company has grown rapidly and its sales doubled to about $500 million last year.

Strong growth has encouraged more venture capitalists to venture into defense technology, an area many previously avoided due to the unpredictability of government contracts and restrictions from limited partners.

However, growth comes with a price. Anduril told investors it expects to burn $2 billion between 2021 and 2026.

The new valuation of $12.5 billion is equivalent to 25 times last year's revenues, much higher than the revenues of established defense companies such as Lockheed Martin.

Anduril now joins an exclusive group of companies that have raised over $1 billion in individual investments this year, including cloud platform CoreWeave, chatbot developer Anthropic, and cybersecurity company Wiz.