Shield AI, one of the handful of defense tech unicorns with touted multibillion-dollar valuations, has fetched $240 million in F-1 capital from investors to further iterate its software offerings.

A bulk of that new investment will go toward Shield AI’s work on Hivemind Enterprise, its flagship software tool for helping organizations develop and deploy autonomous capabilities for intelligent machines.

Founded in 2015, Shield AI has also been known for its V-BAT unmanned aircraft and related TEAMS software that is built to operate four autonomous drones at once.

Unmanned systems, artificial intelligence and autonomy represent hot interest areas for investors with both a keen interest in defense technologies and hopes that the Pentagon will prioritize high-tech areas like them.

Shield AI’s Thursday announcement of its F-1 round comes just one day after fellow defense tech startup Epirus revealed its $250 million Series D round. In February, autonomous surface vehicle maker Saronic disclosed its $600 million Series D round that pushed the touted valuation to around $4 million.

For Shield AI, its new touted valuation is $5.3 billion with Hanhwa Aerospace and L3Harris Technologies included in the lineup of new investors. The group of returning investors includes Andreessen Horowitz, U.S. Innovative Technology and Washington Harbour Partners.

Hivemind Enterprise is also intended to aid in the development of autonomous hardware, while the software side is meant to overcome situations where GPS and other communications tools are not available.

"The same tools that make up Hivemind Enterprise have already enabled Shield AI to autonomously fly F-16s, MQ-20s, MQM-178s, operate V-BATs in GPS- and communications-denied environments, and have quadcopters explore buildings and tunnels for U.S. and Israeli forces,” Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s president and a co-founder, said in a release. Partnerships with strategics like L3Harris and Hanwha Aerospace further accelerate efforts to proliferate resilient autonomy.”

For L3Harris, its move to invest in Shield AI follows their agreement announced in February to collaborate on future demonstrations and integrations of both companies’ AI-centric offerings.

L3Harris has cited multi-domain autonomy and AI as among its core focus areas for technology innovation, including in its December 2023 Investor Day event and presentation.

"The need for advanced autonomy has never been more urgent, and Shield AI is proving that autonomy at scale is not only possible but inevitable,” L3Harris’ chief executive Chris Kubasik added in the release. “Their commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI-driven autonomy aligns with our Trusted Disruptor strategy, where we partner to accelerate the delivery of AI-enabled solutions and emerging technologies to meet our customers' needs faster and more efficiently."