Sequoia Leads $75 Million Round in Nominal

<p><span class&equals;"legendSpanClass"><span class&equals;"xn-location"><strong>LOS ANGELES<&sol;strong> <&sol;span><&sol;span>&&num;8212&semi; Nominal&comma; which operates a unified&comma; real-time test stack for physical systems&comma; has announced a <b><span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;75 million<&sol;span> Series B<&sol;b> led by <b>Sequoia Capital<&sol;b>&comma; with significant participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and continued support from Lux Capital&comma; General Catalyst&comma; Founders Fund&comma; and additional investors&period; Programs across aerospace&comma; defense&comma; energy and advanced manufacturing—including Anduril Industries&comma; Shield AI&comma; and the U&period;S&period; Air Force—use Nominal to analyze hardware data&comma; surface anomalies&comma; and keep critical hardware mission-ready&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;No one tests more hardware&comma; or under higher stakes&comma; than the U&period;S&period; Department of Defense&period; Nominal is already accelerating test outcomes and can help reduce the time required for flight and weapons testing—delivering credible capabilities to the warfighter faster&&num;8221&semi; said Maj Gen &lpar;Ret&rpar; <span class&equals;"xn-person">Evan Dertien<&sol;span>&comma; former commander of the U&period;S&period; Air Force Test Center&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nominal&&num;8217&semi;s unified stack automates data capture&comma; flags edge-case failures&comma; and feeds results straight into operations—whether in a wind tunnel&comma; on a flight line&comma; or inside a contested environment&period; In just two years the company has become the fastest-growing software platform in hardware development&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul >&NewLine;<li>10× revenue growth year-over-year<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>6× customer growth across aerospace&comma; defense&comma; energy&comma; robotics&comma; and manufacturing<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Dozens of operational field deployments&comma; from hypersonic materials testing to daily drone sorties<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>For decades hardware testing innovation has lagged behind the speed of demand for new hardware products&period; Incumbent tools—built for one-and-done verification in the 1980s-2000s—assumed products shipped every ten years&comma; not every ten weeks&period; Spreadsheets&comma; custom Python harnesses and siloed software can&&num;8217&semi;t keep pace with rapid design changes or field updates&period; As reindustrialization&comma; rising defense budgets&comma; and global competition compress schedules&comma; continuous real-time validation is now essential for national security and industrial prosperity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Test speed is the choke-point for hardware innovation&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Alfred Lin<&sol;span>&comma; Partner at Sequoia Capital&period; &&num;8220&semi;Nominal transforms testing from a constraint into a competitive advantage with an integrated platform that spans development through operations&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re excited to partner with the Nominal team as they create and define this new software category that will power the next era of hardware&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Founded in 2022 by engineers and operators from Anduril&comma; Lockheed Martin&comma; and Palantir&comma; Nominal replaces fragmented scripts and desktop tools with a single secure stack spanning telemetry management&comma; hardware-in-the-loop &lpar;HITL&rpar; automation&comma; and live operational monitoring&period; By cutting test-to-decision time from days to minutes&comma; Nominal lets hardware engineering organizations accelerate product development timelines&comma; reduce overhead&comma; and scale outcomes — without adding headcount&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Today the Nominal platform offers two production products&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul >&NewLine;<li><b>Nominal Core<&sol;b>—a secure cloud workbench for managing&comma; monitoring and analyzing high-rate sensor data&comma; logs&comma; video&comma; and procedures in one time-aligned&comma; collaborative view&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><b>Nominal Connect<&sol;b>—an edge platform that lets engineers build custom hardware-in-the-loop applications and run automation code connected to physical assets or test stands&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We are in the business of making testing simpler&comma; more efficient and cost effective for our customers&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Cameron McCord<&sol;span>&comma; Nominal co-founder and CEO&period; &&num;8220&semi;Every hour our customers wait for a test results impacts their schedule and budget&period; Nominal pulls the sensor data&comma; control logic&comma; and pass-fail gates into one live workspace&comma; so testing outcomes are available within minutes&comma; not days&period; Lines keep moving&comma; flight windows stay on the calendar&comma; and engineering teams ship new hardware without adding headcount&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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