Founders Fund leads $80 million bet on Austin's Nominal at a $1 billion valuation

AUSTIN — Nominal, which makes software engineers use to test and operate complex hardware in fields like aerospace and defense, has raised $80 million in new funding led by Founders Fund, a round that sets a $1 billion valuation for the Austin company.

The March financing is an extension of a Series B that closed last summer, led by Sequoia Capital, with Lux Capital and General Catalyst also taking part. The new tranche elevates Nominal to unicorn status.

Nominal positions its tools as the connective layer for teams building and validating critical physical systems — the kind of test-and-operate infrastructure that aerospace, defense and robotics companies have historically pieced together in-house.

Why it matters

Nominal's raise sits at the intersection of two themes pulling capital into Austin: deep-tech hardware and the software that makes it buildable. Backing from Founders Fund, Sequoia and Lux in quick succession signals that top-tier investors see test infrastructure as a durable category, not a niche.

The speed of the markup — a unicorn valuation on a Series B extension months after the original round — also reflects how aggressively investors are pricing companies tied to the defense and aerospace buildout.