From TechCrunch, July 17:
Hadrian raises $260M to build out automated factories for space and defense parts
Investors are continuing to rally behind the call to reindustrialize American industry, this time by building out a $260 million war chest for automated manufacturing startup Hadrian to scale its factory footprint and make even more machine parts.
Hadrian’s aim is to modernize American manufacturing by leveraging advance automation to deliver mass-produced parts for aerospace and defense companies at a fraction of the time. It’s a huge change to the status quo: a manufacturing industry that’s largely populated by dozens of small machining shops run by an aging workforce.
Hadrian’s first target was high-precision CNC machining, a manufacturing process that makes parts to extremely tight tolerances — often measured in the microns, not millimeters (a single human hair is anywhere from 50 to 120 microns in thickness). Now, in addition to that core CNC offering, the company is getting ready to diversify into welding, casting, additive, and other processes, Power said in a post on X. (He did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment on the new round.)
The hefty new round will also go toward building out a new Arizona facility, dubbed “Factory 3,” slated to come online by Christmas 2025. That factory will offer four times the machining throughput of Hadrian’s second factory. Hadrian is also expanding its 500,000-square-foot headquarters and R&D space in Torrance, California, with the new funding....
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