Exclusive: Grid Aero eyes additional airlift following $20 million raise

• "We've been testing almost every day; we've done a good amount of ground testing now," Dubois said. "We are aggressively working through our test program in order to build confidence in our systems and software in preparation for the first flight."

Follow the money: The Series A was led by Bison Ventures and Geodesic Capital. Stony Lonesome Group and Alumni Ventures, among others, participated.

• Grid's $6 million seed round was led by Ubiquity Ventures and Calibrate Ventures.

Zoom in: The Pentagon's chief technology officer last year named contested logistics and applied artificial intelligence "critical technology areas."

• Lifter-Lite is designed to move thousands of pounds of materiel — munitions and first aid, for example — across thousands of miles. It is not meant to transport humans.
• "Macro level, if you look at the Department of War, I read Q4 of 2025 as a strategic reset, in terms of what the Department of War wants to do and how they're going to do it," Dubois said.

• "The message that we got, and that our investors got, was: 'Hey, this is happening now.'"

What's next: Dubois wants to hire more people, including mechanical and software engineers. The startup is also eyeing "war games" and "actual, physical participation in exercises, and anything in between," he said.

Go deeper: U.S. troops get attack drones similar to Iran's deadly Shahed