San Bruno, Calif. – September 13, 2026 -- Chariot Defense, a maker of software-defined power distribution systems for the battlefield, has appointed four defense and venture capital veterans to its Board of Advisors, following a $34 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $7.4 million contract with the Pentagon's Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU).
New advisors bring combined decades of Pentagon acquisition and battlefield command experience
The board includes Gen. James E. Rainey, U.S. Army (Retired), former Commanding General of U.S. Army Futures Command who managed 1.2 million personnel against a $186 billion budget as the Army's Chief Operating Officer; the Honorable Ellen Lord, the first Senate-confirmed Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and former President and CEO of Textron Systems; Brig. Gen. Samuel Peterson, U.S. Army (Retired), who as Program Executive Officer for Combat Support and Combat Service Support led roughly 250 acquisition programs, directed 1,100 acquisition professionals, and fielded more than 22,000 pieces of equipment annually against an $8.2 billion budget; and Stephen Rodriguez, Founder of One Defense and head of defense investing at DCVC, a Chariot investor.
DIU contract will put Amphora power systems in Army brigades this fall
The $7.4 million DIU contract will begin delivering Chariot's Amphora agile power systems to U.S. Army brigades this fall. The company said Amphora is already fielded to operational military units, providing modular power for radios, drones, sensors and directed-energy systems at the tactical edge.
"The battlefield of today, and even more so tomorrow, runs on power,