Dallas-based UNION Technologies—which aims to “reindustrialize America’s defense manufacturing base with a next-generation software-driven Factories-as-a-Stockpile model”—emerged from stealth today after closing an oversubscribed $50 million seed round.

The round was led by Chicago-based Bravo Victor Venture Capital (BVVC), a national security-focused venture firm “with deep ties to Special Operations and intelligence communities,” alongside BVVC’s strategic co-lead and first customer, Virginia-based Regulus, a boutique defense company focused on securing global supply chains and logistics. Also participating were Silent Ventures, Decisive Point, Vanderbilt University, RKKVC, IronGate, and “several prominent family offices committed to reindustrializing the American manufacturing sector.”

About UNION’s founders

BVVC’s managing partner, Joe Musselman, is co-founder and chairman of UNION. Musselman’s bio at BVVC says he’s a U.S. Navy veteran who medically retired from the Naval Special Warfare Command in 2013. He later served as founder and CEO of The Honor Foundation, a “premier career transition institute for the U.S. Special Operations Forces communities.”

Two other co-founders of UNION are the company’s CEO, Will Somerindyke, and Jon Reiland, who serves as UNION’s head of manufacturing and is described by the startup as its “first employee.”

Somerindyke is the former chairman and CEO of Virginia-based defense company Regulus, according to his LinkedIn profile. Regulus specializes in procurement and logistics for foreign governments and is a contractor to the U.S. government in foreign territories, the profile says. Somerindyke’s prior roles include serving as a Virginia Beach-based special operations tactical equipment distributor; a South African-based defense contractor for the Sub-Saharan African defense/tactical supply market; and, from 2000 to 2003, a Merrill Lynch investment analyst.

Reiland is a former infantry unit leader for the U.S. Marine Corps with 11 years of service. The former co-founder and manufacturing lead at Phoenix-based Diamond Age, a home construction automation company, Reiland’s experience also includes, per LinkedIn, two years at Tesla as a manufacturing equipment engineer and two years at Northrop Grummon as a manufacturing engineer.

That’s the who. Here’s the what and why behind UNION.

Aiming to ‘reforge the West’s backbone’ and win wars ‘without firing a shot’

UNION’s founders say they are “exhausted” by the vulnerability of the West’s “deteriorating ability to manufacture, at speed or scale, anything needed to defend itself or its allies”—and determined to help turn that around.

“At a moment when adversaries expand their arsenals daily and America’s energetics enterprise has fallen dangerously behind,” the company said in a release, “UNION exists to reforge the West’s backbone: a stockpile of American super-factories designed to win wars without firing a shot.” 

UNION says America’s munitions and defense sector has been in “elegant decay, plagued by a lack of innovation and sophistication, dominated by outdated technologies and entrenched legacy players who have failed to adapt, eroding their credibility and trust currency with Americans and our allies around the globe.”

The startup’s proposed remedy: its “Factories-as-a-Stockpile” model, which it says represents “a new doctrine for national security manufacturing.”

Producing munitions with software-driven autonomous robotics

Alongside former Tesla and Anduril engineers, UNION says its team has fused software-driven autonomous robotics with precision manufacturing and continuous improvement practices. 

The startup says its initial focus will be on munitions production, with a goal of restoring America’s ability to scale capacity on demand and secure sovereign supply chains.

“UNION factories are the new arsenal of deterrence for America,” CEO Somerindyke said in a statement. “Our factories are smarter and faster—our supply chains resilient. We’ve designed factories that are software-driven, where each component of every line will speak to each other as a neural network and leverage reinforcement learning.”

Aiming to build factories that can ‘eventually build themselves’—on any planet

“Our factories will talk to each other, and eventually, build themselves, anywhere on this planet or any other,” Somerindyke said. “With this Tesla-inspired manufacturing capacity applied to munitions as our first SKU, we will quickly become the most lethal national security resource available to the [U.S. government] or allies—not just factories, but strength. Not just munitions, but deterrence. Not just deterrence, but peace.”

UNION said it has achieved key milestones since it formed in Q4 2024, including, per the company:

:: Avoided long lead times by pre-ordering heavy manufacturing machinery in Q1 2024, months ahead of formation.

:: Developed three “breakthrough” technologies: Faction (Factory Operating System), Fabric (SCADA, reimagined for secure, autonomous manufacturing), and Factorial (Factory Site Intelligence Engine).

:: Initiated engineering of the first production line for high-demand munitions SKUs, including 155mm–107, 795, and 120mm metal components.

:: Secured strategic partnership agreements and LOIs with NATO and non-NATO U.S. allies to support allied defense restockpiling efforts.

:: Launched development of Factory-1, Line-1 in Dallas, purpose-built for continuous improvement and software-driven manufacturing operations.

:: Onboarded “top-tier talent” from Tesla, Anduril, and General Dynamics across engineering, robotics, artillery, and other manufacturing disciplines.

:: Secured sovereign supply chains by establishing “near-peer-proof” sourcing pipelines for critical materials to reinforce factory operations and scalability.

The company emphasized that it is “veteran-led,” with a leadership core composed of U.S. Navy (NSW, Nuclear), Marine Corps, and Army veterans.

A goal of a ‘self-reinforcing arsenal’—and no ‘fair fights’

UNION said its first factory and initial line in Dallas—and its first suite of SKUs,including 155mm–107, 795 variants, and 120mm munitions—are now underway, representing “a self-reinforcing arsenal capable of scaling rapidly to meet current stockpile demands and future deterrence needs.”

“America should never encounter a fair fight.” Musselman, the company’s co-founder and chairman, said in a statement.

“We have this decade to win the next century of deterrence—we must forge steel in America once again,” Musselman added. “Victory in the next 100 years will belong to a new generation of leadership—gritty engineers, builders, and doers, the patriotic founders, who focus on the problem sets that manufacture in the physical world, providing peace through strength. The safety of Americans will be won by production, not false promises or panel discussions. UNION will lead the way.”

The company notes that America’s adversaries are “racing to outbuild and outrange” the U.S. and its allies. As it emerges from stealth, UNION is laying down a promise of its own: “America will not be outbuilt. America will not be outmatched. America will be a titan again,” the company said.

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