Austin Counter-Drone Startup Stellios Emerges From Stealth With $5 Million Pre-Seed Financing
Austin, Texas-based directed-energy startup Stellios Technologies emerged from stealth on October 20, announcing an oversubscribed $5 million pre-seed financing with investors including Sofreh Capital, Wave Function Ventures, Cubit Capital, Mana Ventures, Atoms & Bits and Output Capital. The company was founded in 2026 by Richard Starson, who holds a doctorate from Caltech, and develops high-power microwave, directed-energy, compact-fusion and advanced-propulsion technologies. Its core hardware includes vacuum-electronic devices such as klystrons and gyrotrons, along with the high-voltage power generation, conditioning and control systems that drive them.
According to DRONELIFE, Stellios had secured about $2 million in signed customer purchase orders before raising outside capital. The company plans to use the funding to build and deliver its first contracted high-power microwave systems, establish domestic research and pilot manufacturing facilities in the United States, and expand its engineering, leadership and sales teams. Its first commercial product line is megawatt-class high-power microwave systems, designed in defense for counter-electronics and counter-drone missions. The company is also advancing Stellios Genesis, its SI-native engineering and digital-twin platform, and runs a compact fusion research program called Stellios Core.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Austin 市景，摄影：Larry D. Moore，许可：CC BY 4.0，图片来源：Wikimedia Commons
