Autonomous flight control system developer Merlin is preparing to raise capital through an initial public offering by combining its business with Bleichroeder, a special-purpose acquisition company. The U.S. start-up said on August 15 that it aims to complete the transaction on the Nasdaq stock market in early 2026 and expects to raise up to $385 million.
Merlin’s objective is to become a leading contractor converting military aircraft to autonomous operations using its Merlin Pilot system. It has a $105 million contract from the U.S. Special Operations Command to integrate the system in the C-130J aircraft, and a similar agreement with the U.S. Air Force covering the KC-135 refueling platform.
Last month, Northrop Grumman said it plans to use Merlin Pilot for its Beacon testbed for defense-related autonomous flight solutions. This project uses a Scaled Composites Model 437 Vanguard demonstration aircraft to evaluate the technology.
Merlin is also engaged in a partnership with Honeywell to integrate autonomous systems with the Anthem avionics suite for multiple aircraft types. It has been conducting flight tests with the Merlin Pilot platform in New Zealand using a Cessna Caravan aircraft for cargo operations.
Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. (BAC), which is backed by Inflection Point Asset Management, said it intends to file an S-4 registration form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and it submitted a Form 425 Prospectus on August 13. Announcing the IPO, the companies said the deal gives Merlin a pre-money valuation of $800 million, but did not explain the basis for this assessment. They said that more than $125 million has been committed in PIPE capital, of which $78 million comes from BAC.
According to Merlin, its motivation for going public is to deliver “the first defense-grade autonomy stack and scale it across all forms of aviation, from small drones to civil aircraft to the world’s largest planes.” In a blog published on August 14, Merlin CEO Matt George warns that Chinese companies are making faster progress with autonomous systems than their U.S. rivals.
“Today, the U.S. risks falling behind as its industrial base fractures between niche R&D that can’t scale and legacy primes stretched thin across hundreds of programs,” he stated. Boston-based Merlin has been testing its autonomous flight technology since 2019.