Device testing startup Nominal is valued at $1 billion, raising $155 million in 10 months

Nominal on Thursday announced a new $80 million Series B extension round at a $1 billion valuation, led by Founders Fund. This follows the company’s $75 million second round led by Sequoia in September.

Nominal offers software that helps hardware engineers test their designs and started out as a pick-and-roll startup in the defense industry. The three-and-a-half-year-old company, based in Los Angeles, says that in the past 10 months it has secured four of the five largest defense contractors as clients.

CEO and co-founder Cameron McCord (pictured) is a former US Navy submarine officer and Anduril alum, the defense technology company, which is also a high-profile Nominal client. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Trae Stevens, Anduril’s co-founder and CEO, who is also a partner at Founders Fund, is leading this deal as a proactive deal, McCord told Bloomberg, and confirmed to TechCrunch. Sequoia, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, Red Glass, and Lightspeed also participated.

Next, Nominal plans to expand beyond defense technology and into industrial sectors such as automotive, robotics and other industries. It was a good start. The company tells TechCrunch that some of its other clients include Pratt Miller Motorsports (Corvette Racing Team), and nuclear power company Antares.