The demand for the U.S. space defense system is soaring, and the valuation of the aerospace startup company Apex has surpassed 1 billion U.S. dollars.

With the Pentagon signaling a huge demand for space defense systems, Apex Space completed a $200 million financing round on Friday, bringing its valuation to $1 billion. The Los Angeles-based startup's Series D financing was led by Interlagos, a venture capital firm founded by a former senior finance director of Elon Musk's SpaceX. Existing investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Point72 Ventures, and 8VC. Founded in 2022, Apex manufactures satellite buses to carry commercial and government payloads such as Earth imaging capabilities and missile tracking and defense sensors. The company says the latest funding round will help increase spacecraft production speed by 50% and expand production facilities by more than double in size.