DEFENSE UNICORNS RAISES $136 MILLION SERIES B TO BUILD THE
SOFTWARE BACKBONE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR
Reaching a $1B valuation underscores Defense Unicorns’ role as modern
foundational infrastructure for secure software delivery across critical military
platforms.
San Antonio, TX., Jan 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Defense Unicorns, the leader
in airgap software delivery for national security mission systems, announced the
completion of a $136 million Series B financing round led by Bain Capital. The
investment brings the company to unicorn status with a valuation exceeding $1 billion,
driven by the company’s rapid and profitable growth. The company has seen a 300%
increase in adoption year-over-year in military systems.
The Department of War is prioritizing modernization and speed, and Defense Unicorns’
platform addresses a critical infrastructure challenge by enabling secure, rapid software updates across disconnected environments from submarines, ships, and aircraft to forward operating bases. Warfighters often operate in conditions where connectivity is limited or nonexistent, and the ability to deploy software updates securely and instantly is now essential to mission success. Unicorn Delivery Service (UDS) bridges high security requirements while supporting partners and allies with modern software solutions essential for next-generation national security capabilities.
“Defense Unicorns gives our nation a wartime software advantage,” said Dr. Rob
Slaughter, CEO of Defense Unicorns. “The U.S. has significant commercial software
advantages, but the systems we go to war with are typically outdated. At Defense
Unicorns, we make software a strategic deterrent by making it easy to deploy and
operate software in any mission environment,” continued Dr. Slaughter.
The funding round was led by Bain Capital’s Tech Opportunities fund, the growth
technology platform of Bain Capital. With participation from Ansa Capital, Sapphire
Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, AVP, Uncorrelated Ventures, and the former Director
of the Central Intelligence Agency, David H. Petraeus.
“We are thrilled to support Defense Unicorns as it works to ensure that U.S. service
members have access to the most advanced, secure, and rapidly deployable software
possible. Defense Unicorns plays a vital role in helping the military modernize mission
systems, enabling capabilities that directly improve readiness, resilience, and
operational advantage in the field,” said Dewey Awad, a Partner at Bain Capital Tech
Opportunities.
Demand for secure software delivery continues to rise. Marco DeMeireles, Co-Founder
and Managing Partner at Ansa Capital stated, “We’ve been proud to partner with
Defense Unicorns since the Series A, and our continued investment reflects the
conviction we’ve built watching the team execute against an incredibly complex and
mission-critical problem. What Rob and the team have built is foundational
infrastructure for modern defense, and this next chapter only reinforces the scale of impact ahead.”
The new capital will enable Defense Unicorns to further scale and integrate
open-source and commercial dual-use technology throughout the U.S. military and
allied forces. To address the most critical modernization needs in defense, the company plans to advance product development across the following strategic products:
● UDS: A secure, portable, airgap-native runtime platform, purpose-built to solve
DOW-specific software delivery challenges. UDS makes deploying and updating
software on military systems fast and easy, with essential tools for packaging,
deploying, monitoring, and sustaining mission applications.
● UDS Registry: The first software registry of its kind to offer the speed, reliability,
and mission-critical performance required by military systems operating in the
most extreme environments. UDS Registry gives the U.S. and our allies an
American-maintained solution that secures our software supply chain and
maintains trust and reliability across the software development lifecycle.
● UDS Army: A new approach to accelerate the continuous delivery of secure,
mission-ready software to soldiers. UDS Army gives commercial software
vendors a faster, simpler path to bring their capabilities to Army missions by
combining secure DevSecOps pipelines with pre-authorized cloud environments.
“Before UDS, there was no open, secure, and airgap-native modern software delivery
capability for warfighters. More than just a piece of software, UDS is an entire open
ecosystem of tools and technologies purpose-built to securely bring capabilities to the
field faster. I’m grateful for the incredible teams at Defense Unicorns that continue to
evolve UDS to bring even more technical advantage to our nation’s heroes,” concluded
Co-Founder and CTO Jeff McCoy.
About Defense Unicorns
Defense Unicorns is a veteran-owned defense technology company founded in 2021 by Rob Slaughter, Jeff McCoy, and Andrew Greene to make software a strategic deterrent for the U.S. Department of War. The company builds open-source, airgap-native technologies that enable the secure development, delivery, and sustainment of mission software across cloud, on-premises, and tactical edge environments. Defense Unicorns’ technology is trusted by the operators of some of the most critical systems in the world, including the U.S. Navy, Army, Air Force, and Space Force. Learn more at https://defenseunicorns.com.
About Bain Capital Founded in 1984, Bain Capital is one of the world’s leading private
investment firms. We are committed to creating lasting impact for our investors, teams,
businesses, and the communities in which we live. As a private partnership, we lead
with conviction and a culture of collaboration, advantages that enable us to innovate
investment approaches, unlock opportunities, and create exceptional outcomes. Our
global platform invests across five focus areas: Private Equity, Growth & Venture,
Capital Solutions, Credit &Capital Markets, and Real Assets. In these focus areas, we
bring deep sector expertise and wide-ranging capabilities. We have 24 offices on four
continents, more than 1,850employees, and approximately $185 billion in assets under
management. Bain Capital’s Tech Opportunities
business(baincapitaltechopportunities.com) aims to help growing technology companies reach their full potential. We focus on companies in large, growing end markets with innovative or disruptive technology where we believe we can support transformational growth. Our dedicated, tenured team has deep experience supporting growing technology businesses—bringing together differentiated backgrounds in private and public equity investing as well as technology operating roles. We invest behind fundamental long-term tailwinds as technology penetrates across industries, creating a large and growing number of investment opportunities. To learn more, visit
www.baincapital.com. Follow @BainCapital on LinkedIn and X (Twitter).
