In 2023, Nathan Mintz received a call from Porter Smith, a veteran of the United States military and investment partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Smith had visited Ukraine amid the Russian invasion of the Eastern European country, witnessing the nature of war technology changing from a physical battlefield to an electromagnetic one.
Instead of fighting primarily via infantry, armored vehicle and aviation units, Ukraine and Russia used drones, sensors and the electromagnetic spectrum.
“It no longer makes sense to fire a $2 million missile to take out a $2,000 drone,” Mintz said.
Mintz and Smith co-founded CX2, a military technology startup based in El Segundo that announced a $31 million series A funding round in late May. The round was led by Point72 Ventures in New York, with additional participation from a handful of new investors like Santa Monica-based Upfront Ventures, Pax Ventures and 201 Ventures. Existing investors like Andreessen Horowitz and 8VC also took part in the funding round.
“We believe electronic warfare represents one of the most critical capability gaps in U.S. defense,” said Chris Morales, a partner at Point72 Ventures, in a statement. “CX2’s approach to building attritable, intelligent (electronic warfare) systems align perfectly with what we see as the future of warfare.”
CX2 is in good company. California is home to 10% of the world’s defense technology sector, more than half of which is in Los Angeles, according to PitchBook. In February, El Segundo-based weapons manufacturer Castelion received $100 million in financing. Huntington Beach-based Mach Industries raised $100 million in early May.
Defense technology is a recent darling of the venture capital sector. With less than half of 2025 completed, the global defense sector broke all-time records when it comes to the number of deals and the amount of capital raised. The companies in the vertical raised $3.94 billion as of June 11. Comparatively, it raised $2 billion all of last year. The adoration comes from changing attitudes among venture firms and their limited partners. Weapons were once a banned category for venture firms. Companies like RTX, formerly known as Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin became the largest weapons manufacturers in the country.
“The existing big five prime contractors are long in the tooth and are sagging under their own weight and having issues executing at the rate of what we’ve seen in Ukraine,” Mintz said, adding that other countries are “coming up with new solutions in 30 days that we couldn’t come up with in three years.”
But today, sophisticated war tactics are conducted via connectivity – the same connectivity that can send an email, order groceries or scroll through social media. Electronic sensors can identify and jam enemy radio frequencies or data links to drones and missiles, making it difficult to communicate and deploy attack weapons. CX2 is building a slate of electronic warfare hardware and software platforms that are artificial intelligence enabled. The goal is to build them to scale and prepare them to deploy quickly, but at a much lower cost than current jamming systems.
CX2 was started by technology veterans. Along with Smith, Mintz worked at RTX and Boeing before starting his first military tech company Epirus in 2018. Mark Trefgarne founded video ad exchange platform LiveRail and sold it to Meta in a $500 million deal. Lee Thompson worked on radio systems for Starship and other SpaceX offerings.
