Meet Silicon Valley's Arms Dealer Will Somerindyke
Now, as Silicon Valley investors swarm to back multi-billion dollar defense startups with increasing fervor, Somerindyke is looking to make the jump from munitions middleman to manufacturer. He's been quietly working on Union, a new venture-backed startup he claims will modernize ammunition factories with autonomous robotics and precision machining.
'I've been through a lot in 18 years in this space,' Somerindyke told Forbes . 'If Union does its job correctly, we will be building millions of square feet of facilities with the ability to make a wide range of defense products.'
Union, which Somerindyke leads as CEO, appears to have made a solid start. In April it secured a massive $50 million seed funding round led by Bravo Victor Venture Capital, or BVVC. Other investors include Silent Ventures, IronGate, and RKKVC, a Poland-based single-family office. It plans to open its first artillery shell factory in Texas next month. And it recently secured a contract to sell those shells, which, if fulfilled, could bring in up to $225 million, according to Somerindyke.
The customer behind that first contract is Regulus, where Somerindyke remains chairman and majority owner — putting him on both sides of the company-client relationship (Regulus is also an investor in Union).
Somerindyke said that Union has 'put all the parameters in place to avoid conflict of interest,' adding: 'This is a great partnership between Regulus and Union because we have similar goals and needs…Regulus just happens to be the first customer.' (Somerindyke declined to say who the intended customer is for the shells Regulus plans to purchase from Union).
In addition, Joe Musselman, BVVC's managing partner, is incubating Union out of the venture fund, and is serving as Union's chairman and as an investor. He said his limited partners were untroubled by Union's CEO maintaining a management role at its largest customer. 'You have to find people that are already working on a problem set,' Musselman said. 'And that's something that Will has been doing for a long time.'
Will Somerindyke, left, and Joe Musselman, right, plan to open Union's first factory this month. Union
Union is now in talks to raise a series A funding round, which, Musselman claims, has 'hundreds of millions' of dollars committed from investors. Jackson Moses, managing partner of Silent Ventures, backed Union's seed funding round because he sees the company as 'critical national infrastructure.' He intends to 'meaningfully' invest in the upcoming series A. 'Will and Joe are uniquely qualified to successfully execute Union's mission,' he said.
The idea for Union was to solve munitions shortages across the West — a reality Somerindyke was intimately familiar with sourcing artillery shells for Ukraine through Regulus. The U.S. Army, for example, which pays companies like General Dynamics to make its 155mm shells, has invested $5 billion in opening new manufacturing facilities to make more than 100,000 shells a month, though it is currently said to be 'months' behind that goal. Got a tip? Contact David Jeans at djeans@forbes.com or 347-559-5443 on Signal.
But instead of approaching the problem with old-school manufacturing, Somerindyke and Musselman, who met more than a decade ago through a program for veterans, saw an opportunity to modernize weapons manufacturing, are using Silicon Valley software talent to implement autonomous systems. Since incorporating in October, Union has hired a suite of engineers from Tesla, SpaceX and Anduril.
It was an opportune time for Somerindyke, whose company Regulus was embroiled in a dispute over a $1.7 billion contract to sell artillery shells to the Ukrainian government, the Financial Times previously reported. The dispute is currently in arbitration in a London court; 'Regulus feels more than comfortable with its case and what our contractual obligations are,' Somerindyke said. (He has a history of legal disputes with business partners, per the FT). In January, the same month he became CEO of Union, Somerindyke stepped down as CEO at Regulus, but retained his role as chairman.
Musselman has touted recent momentum to 'reindustrialize' America and bring manufacturing back to the U.S. as necessary to combatting China's manufacturing superiority. Other companies have joined the effort, including Hadrian, which does autonomous manufacturing, and Re:Build, a Massachusetts-based company that has been acquiring mom-and-pop factories and modernizing them; both could compete with Union's entry into the market. Mussleman has also invested in other defense companies; after starting BVVC in 2023, he has written checks into drone company Firestorm and autonomous submarine startup Vatn Systems.
At the Texas facility, set to open this month, Union hopes to produce more than 300,000 shells next year, according to a company pitch deck shared with seed investors in January. By 2030, Union has told its investors, it plans to produce nine million shells a year, which it hopes will generate $3.5 billion in revenue.
Those are lofty figures. But Musselman sees the ongoing turbulence in the world — conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East — as proof of Union's thesis. 'We are running at a deficit of stockpiles or anything that goes boom around the world,' he said. 'And that's going to be a leverage point for our adversaries.' More from Forbes Forbes How A Grisly Injury Threw A $5 Billion Drone Startup Off Course By David Jeans Forbes Meta Is Recruiting Former Pentagon Officials As It Ramps Up Military Ambitions By David Jeans Forbes Silicon Valley's Military Drone Companies Have A Serious 'Made In China' Problem By David Jeans Forbes Starlink's Numbers Could Bring SpaceX's Valuation Crashing Down By Jeremy Bogaisky
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