Joby, Dirac, & Allen Control: The Future of Air Taxis, AI Factories, & Defense Tech
How capital-intensive, frontier-defining companies are raising billions
Joby Aviation, Dirac, & Allen Control Systems
America’s industrial base is being rebuilt by a new generation of leaders at the intersection of aerospace, AI, & defense. In this Sourcery episode I sit down with three leaders helping drive the reindustrialization movement: Eric Allison (Chief Product Officer, Joby Aviation), Filip Aronshtein (CEO, Dirac), and Steven Simoni (President, Allen Control Systems)
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Together, their stories highlight how capital-intensive, frontier-defining companies are raising billions from elite venture funds and strategics like Toyota, Founders Fund, Coatue, Craft Ventures, 8VC, Baillie Gifford, and Uber. The conversation captures the urgency, conviction, & vision behind America’s reindustrialization. From flying cars in Dubai to AI factories in New York to autonomous defense systems in Texas.
Eric Allison (Chief Product Officer, Joby Aviation – $JOBY)
Shares why Joby went public early via a SPAC. How Joby is doubling U.S. manufacturing capacity in California and Ohio, pursuing FAA certification for its eVTOL aircraft, and scaling through partnerships with Toyota, Uber, and Delta. How the company integrates vertically from component design to customer experience, and why quiet, safe operations are the key to winning public adoption.
Filip Aronshtein (CEO, Dirac)
Breaks down how Dirac’s BuildOS platform automates production planning and work instructions for manufacturers. The problem of tribal knowledge loss on factory floors, & why BuildOS is seeing surging demand across aerospace, defense, and heavy industry. How AI & AGI can only deliver value if paired with structured, context-aware data systems.
Steve Simoni (CEO, Allen Control Systems)
Explains how ACS is building AI-guided turret systems (“Bullfrog”) to counter the global surge in drone warfare. He discusses the capital requirements of scaling defense autonomy, why bullets are still the most effective countermeasure, how AI enhances both precision and safety, and why robot-on-robot warfare is the future of the battlefield.
This conversation is part of Sourcery’s “Made in America” Mini-Series recorded at the Reindustrialize 2025 Summit.
More on their funding history below.
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Breaking Down the Backers & Founders Behind Joby Aviation, Dirac, & Allen Control Systems
When looking at today’s frontier tech companies from electric aviation to AI-driven control systems it’s important to understand not just the technology, but also the leadership and capital behind these ventures. Below is a breakdown of three notable companies: Joby Aviation, Dirac, & Allen Control Systems, their leaders, lead investors, and the funding paths that have helped shape their growth.
Joby Aviation: Private to Public Markets
Joby Aviation ($JOBY) founded in 2009 by JoeBen Bevirt, an inventor & entrepreneur who has spent two decades advancing electric aviation. Joby’s mission is to build & commercialize electric vertical take-off & landing (eVTOL) aircraft for urban air mobility.
In this conversation we interview Eric Allison, Chief Product Officer, who leads the end-to-end product and service experience for Joby’s air taxi network. Eric was formerly Head of Uber Elevate and CEO of Zee.Aero (now Wisk).
In August 2021, Joby became one of the first eVTOL startups to hit the public markets, going public through a SPAC merger with Reinvent Technology Partners (RTP) led Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus, and Michael Thompson. It now trades on the NYSE under the ticker $JOBY, making it a top competitor in the air mobility space alongside Archer.
The unprecedented transaction [SPAC] valued the combined company at $6.6 billion post money, and is expected to provide more than $1.6 billion in cash proceeds. The deal includes $910 million of fully committed funding (inclusive of an $835 million fully committed PIPE) anchored by strategic partners and institutional investors including Uber, The Baupost Group, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Baillie Gifford and Fidelity. At the close of this deal, Joby will have secured significantly more funds than any other company in the sector.
Previously, Joby Aviation had raised $820 million in total funding from a broad set of world-class investors. The most recent funding round (Series C, January 2020) was led by Toyota Motor Corporation. Additional investors include: 8VC, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, AME Cloud Ventures, Baillie Gifford, Capricorn Investment Group, Edbi, Emerson Collective, Global Oryx Limited (Abdul Latif Jameel’s family investment arm), Intel Capital, JetBlue Technology Ventures, KTB Ventures, Millennium Technology, SPARX Group, Toyota AI Ventures, Trucks VC, and Uber Technologies, Inc.
Financing breakdown
2018 Series B ($100M): led by Toyota AI Ventures, with Intel Capital, JetBlue Technology Ventures, and Capricorn participating.
2020 Series C ($590M): led by Toyota Motor Corporation, which has become Joby’s most significant backer and industrial partner.
Other notable investors have included Uber, which sold its Elevate division to Joby while taking a stake in the company.
Dirac: AI Control Systems Backed by Founders Fund & Coatue
Founded by Filip (Fil) Aronshtein, with Peter Weiss as a co-founder, Dirac is building AI-powered control software designed to optimize complex industrial systems. The company has quickly drawn interest from both leading VCs and strategic partners.
In 2025, Dirac announced a $10.7M funding round led by Founders Fund and Coatue, alongside a strategic partnership with Siemens.
Dirac’s investor base and strategic alliances signal strong confidence in its ability to tackle industrial automation challenges at scale, an area that sits at the intersection of AI and advanced manufacturing.
Allen Control Systems: Scaling Defense Autonomy
Allen Control Systems (ACS) was founded by Steven Simoni (President), along with Luke Allen (CTO) and Mike Wior (CEO), to address the rapidly escalating need for autonomous defense systems capable of countering drone and missile threats.
ACS has raised significant early capital to accelerate its deployments:
Seed Round ($12M, 2024): led by Craft Ventures.
Series A ($30M, 2025): again led by Craft Ventures, with participation from Inspired Capital and Rally Ventures.
With Craft Ventures doubling down across rounds, ACS has positioned itself as a fast-moving player in defense technology building precision weapon systems to safeguard our military and partners, ensuring dominance on every battlefield. ACS is ushering in a new era of battlefield security, equipping U.S. and allied forces with the next generation of counter-drone technology.
The flagship product, Bullfrog, is a first-of-its-kind AI-powered robotic weapon station that enhances battlefield effectiveness by transforming legacy or modern weapon systems to achieve unmatched accuracy and impact.
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