Boom Supersonic

Boom Supersonic is the trade name of Boom Technology, Inc., a company building Overture, a 60 to 80 seat supersonic airliner, along with its own Symphony engine. It was founded in Denver in 2014 by Blake Scholl, who is chief executive, with Joe Wilding and Josh Krall, and is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado. Its XB-1 demonstrator first flew in March 2024, broke the sound barrier on January 28, 2025, and reached Mach 1.18 on its final flight on February 10, 2025. Boom finished its Overture Superfactory at Piedmont Triad International Airport in North Carolina in June 2024 and reports 130 orders and pre-orders from United Airlines, American Airlines and Japan Airlines.

Boom went through Y Combinator in early 2016. In March 2017 it received $33 million from Continuity Fund, RRE Ventures, Palm Drive Ventures, 8VC and Caffeinated Capital, and it had $43 million in total financing by April 2017. Japan Airlines invested $10 million in 2017 as part of a round that took total capital to $156 million by 2020. Wikipedia also lists Bessemer Venture Partners, Seraph Group, Sam Altman, Paul Graham, Alex Gerko and Michael Moritz as backers, and NEOM Investment Fund made an undisclosed strategic investment in November 2023. On December 9, 2025, Boom closed a $300 million round, which it called a Series B, led by Darsana Capital Partners with Altimeter Capital, ARK Invest, Bessemer Venture Partners, Robinhood Ventures and Y Combinator.

The December 2025 raise came with a second business line, Superpower, a 42 megawatt natural gas turbine built to power AI data centers. Boom said the round fully funds Symphony engine development and that turbine revenue would pay for certification and delivery of Overture. It announced a launch order from Crusoe for 29 turbines (1.21 gigawatts) valued at more than $1.25 billion, and in February 2026 said Baker Hughes had a 1.21 gigawatt generator order tied to that program. On September 25, 2026, TechCrunch reported that Crusoe had dropped the order; Scholl said Boom has other customers and aims to deliver 250 megawatts in 2027 and 1 gigawatt in 2028. Overture test flights are planned for 2027, and no valuation for the latest round has been published.

Boom shows how long hard-tech venture holding periods can be. Y Combinator and the 2017 funds entered roughly a decade or more before Overture's planned entry into service, and the company has added an energy product to fund the airliner program. Strategic investors such as Japan Airlines and NEOM sit alongside venture firms on the cap table. With no IPO or sale, all returns remain unrealized.