How the hydrogen explosion led a teenager to become the first defense investment in Sikoya

As the first investment of defense in Sequoia Capital, Match industries It is my darling industry, More than 80 million dollars collected Since its foundation in 2023, its founder, Ethan Thornton, 21 -year -old, began Mach as a teenage teenage student before Full -time leakage on startup.

But a few months before the seed investment of Seikoya in the summer of 2023, Mach had a large setback: a preliminary model of the hydrogen pistol that was built, exploded, and he sent hundreds of pieces of shrapnel flying and injuring a team member, Forbes First I mentioned.

Talk to Techcrunch During his appearance at Strictlyvc in San Francisco On April 3, Thornton publicly addressed the incident, saying that it had occurred due to a lack of safety resources.

He said: “At that time, we were trying to tell her herself, and we did not have the money to operate these procedures in the way it should have been.”

After the explosion, “Macheries mainly closed all business” until I collected money from Sequoia Capital, Thornton said. Now, with these resources, Thornton says that Mach has a full safety team and works with the American army to develop new weapons.

The startup also followed its initial focus on hydrogen, which is volatile gas. Speaking at Strictlyvc, Thornton said the hydrogen “may have been a bad bet on technology” required more development. But the axis did not abandon Mach – away from it.

Now, Mach builds completely different types of weapons, such as a new car missile and a bomb called “GLIDE” that can be launched from the edge of the space. also A contract for the American army recently fell and announced plans For a network of decentralized factories he calls “Forge”.

“Building a lot of initial models” is a major part of the reason for the VCS $ 85 million in the company, Thornton said.

“I don’t have to build these things, but more than our ability to work actually with the federal government to obtain programs around it,” he said.