The National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC) and Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) have joined global aerospace and defence investors to back a $46 million Series A funding round for Hypersonix Launch Systems (HLS).
"Defence is one of the NRFC's priority areas and we see huge potential in backing Australian companies and innovations that build our sovereign capability while also tapping into the global market for hypersonic and counter hypersonic capabilities among our friends and allies," NRFC CEO, David Gall, said.
The funding round was led by High Tor Capital, a UK investor in national security and frontier technology, with Saab and Polish family office RKKVC also supporting the raise.
“We are extremely proud to have the NRFC join our cap table. Their investment is a significant endorsement of our mission and the extraordinary team behind it. This is a defining moment for Hypersonix, and one that reflects the growing national recognition of the need for sovereign aerospace capability," Hypersonix Chief Executive Officer, Matt Hill, highlighted.
The NRFC has committed to a $10 million equity investment to help HLS test, develop, and manufacture their next generation hypersonic aircraft.
“This is breakthrough technology allowing Australia and its allies to fly faster, further, and more often with an unmatched combination of speed, sustainability, and cost advantage,” QIC Ventures Partner, Nicholas Guest, stated.
Hypersonix is an Australian aerospace company founded in Brisbane in 2019. It specialises in hypersonic technology, and its DART vehicle is a hydrogen powered, air-breathing, scramjet aircraft that travels between Mach 5-7.
The company’s long-term goal is to build and commercialise its scramjet propelled multi-generational vehicles for dual use applications, culminating in low earth orbit (LEO) travel.
NRFC funding will pay for product development, the establishment of advanced manufacturing capabilities in Queensland, and hypersonic testing of Hypersonix’s DART vehicles by the US Government’s Defence Innovation Unit.
While most scramjets use kerosene, Hypersonix's patented scramjets have been fuelled by hydrogen. Hypersonix’s DART is a 3.5-metre, single-use vehicle that flies at Mach 57. They are manufactured in Australia and will be used as a testbed for other technologies.
Hypersonix’s first DART test flights will take place at NASA early next year and the company also has a partnership in place with Kratos Defence & Security Solutions (KTOS).