Hadrian has raised $1.37 billion in Series D financing at a $7.87 billion valuation to expand its network of highly automated U.S. factories. The defense manufacturing company plans to use the funding for new facilities, additional production capabilities and research and development.
WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, Valor Equity Partners, 137 Ventures and Baillie Gifford co-led the round. JPMorganChase’s Strategic Investment Group joined as an anchor co-lead through the bank’s Security and Resiliency Initiative.
Investors Back Expansion of U.S. Manufacturing
The round also included 1789 Capital, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, funds managed by Apollo, accounts advised by T. Rowe Price, CapitalG, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Altimeter and Construct Capital. Existing investors also participated.
Hadrian raised $260 million in its Series C about a year earlier, in a round led by Founders Fund and Lux Capital. That financing supported the expansion of its manufacturing footprint and the addition of full-product manufacturing capabilities.
Unlike defense technology companies focused primarily on developing new weapons systems, Hadrian concentrates on the manufacturing infrastructure behind aerospace and defense programmes. Its factories use an AI-powered platform called Opus to automate production and inspection of precision components and larger assemblies.
Factories Target Defense Supply Bottlenecks
Hadrian said the new capital will help it move beyond individual precision parts toward complete mission-critical systems. Its Factories-as-a-Service model is intended to increase manufacturing capacity across areas including munitions and shipbuilding.
The company opened its fourth factory in Cherokee, Alabama, in March to support production of Columbia- and Virginia-class submarines. The 2.2 million-square-foot facility is designed to mass-produce components and finished products that have been identified as bottlenecks in submarine construction.
The Alabama project is structured as a public-private partnership worth more than $2.4 billion. It combines more than $1.5 billion in private capital with $900 million in U.S. Navy funding.
Hadrian Plans More Automated Production
Hadrian currently operates manufacturing facilities in Torrance, California, and Mesa, Arizona, alongside its Alabama factory and a separate research and development site. The company can also install production lines inside customers’ own facilities.
Its software is designed to interpret existing engineering designs and automate parts of manufacturing and quality inspection. Hadrian says the system also allows newly hired factory technicians to be trained more quickly than in conventional manufacturing environments.
The company said in its official Series D announcement that the latest financing will support additional factories and production capacity as demand for U.S.-based defense and aerospace manufacturing continues to exceed available supply.
Featured image credits: Magnific.com
For more stories like it, click the +Follow button at the top of this page to follow us.