Atlanta-based aerospace startup Hermeus Corp. has secured $350 million in a funding round that values the builder of uncrewed supersonic and hypersonic fighters at north of $1 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.

Bloomberg reports that the company will use the proceeds from the latest funding round to build two more supersonic jets, called "Quarterhorse," and to expand manufacturing as it works on an uncrewed aircraft designed to fly at Mach 3 or faster.

The company is also working on a hypersonic uncrewed jet called "Darkhorse."

The round was led by Khosla Ventures and included investors such as Founders Fund, Canaan Partners, RTX Ventures, and In-Q-Tel. The company says it has now raised more than $500 million in total and is valued at $1 billion.

Hermeus says the aircraft is designed to deliver fighter-jet-level payload capacity in a cheaper, unmanned platform for defense use.

Founded in 2018, Hermeus is part of the rising class of startups in the defense space that we have called "war unicorns," as the Department of War resets the procurement process and focuses on funding a new era of defense startups rather than bloated legacy defense primes that are highly skilled at squandering taxpayer funds.

Vinod Khosla, the founder of Khosla Ventures, told the outlet, "The US is very far behind anything in Russia or China on hypersonic flight and weapons. So it becomes imperative that we have a strategy, and that's what Hermeus is doing."

Hermeus is trying to close the gap in hypersonic aviation as the US remains behind Russia and China. The US is still in the testing phase of hypersonic weapons, while Russia and China have already fielded such weapons.