Latest news with #automatedmanufacturing
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
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. The company will also start offering divisions for maritime and munitions-specific parts 'to meet the sale and speed needed to reclaim our birthright as the industrial superpower of the world,' Power said on X. Hadrian's business model is not just selling parts, but also a 'factories as a service' model that will see dedicated facilities for customers that want to ensure committed factory capacity. Speaking at the Reindustrialization Summit on Wednesday, Power argued that reshoring domestic production is nothing less than existential: 'This country is heading into a generational fight,' he said. 'The hour is extremely late. The great game is on … We have an incredibly short window to prepare for this, fix it, reindustrialize the country and return to what made us great in the first place.' The new round was led by Founders Fund and Lux Capital, with Morgan Stanley providing financing for the factory expansion. New investors Altimeter, 1789 Capital, and existing investors a16z, Construct Capital, and 137 Ventures also participated. The company has now raised nearly $500 million since it was founded in 2020.
TechCrunch
17-07-2025
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
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. The company will also start offering divisions for maritime and munitions-specific parts 'to meet the sale and speed needed to reclaim our birthright as the industrial superpower of the world,' Power said on X. Hadrian's business model is not just selling parts, but also a 'factories as a service' model that will see dedicated facilities for customers that want to ensure committed factory capacity. Speaking at the Reindustrialization Summit on Wednesday, Power argued that reshoring domestic production is nothing less than existential: 'This country is heading into a generational fight,' he said. 'The hour is extremely late. The great game is on … We have an incredibly short window to prepare for this, fix it, reindustrialize the country and return to what made us great in the first place.' Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW The new round was led by Founders Fund and Lux Capital, with Morgan Stanley providing financing for the factory expansion. New investors Altimeter, 1789 Capital, and existing investors a16z, Construct Capital, and 137 Ventures also participated. The company has now raised nearly $500 million since it was founded in 2020.
Fast Company
07-05-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
At a new factory in Kentucky, robots will help make your Keen boots
Inside a new factory near Louisville, Kentucky, bright orange robots will soon begin carefully loading boot parts into a machine that adds soles. It's one step in the highly automated process of making a Keen work boot—and an illustration of what it looks like now to bring factories back to the United States. Keen, which is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, started planning the new factory last year, long before current tariffs were in place. And the company, unlike the majority of shoe brands, had already been manufacturing some shoes in Portland for more than a decade. The Portland factory is now closing as the company prepares to open the larger factory in Kentucky next month. When it first started operations in Oregon in 2010, the business world was skeptical. 'Many people told us that [making shoes] could not be done in the U.S., primarily because of some of the cost factors,' says Hari Perumal, Keen's chief supply chain officer. The company wanted to be closer to its American market, so it looked for a solution. Labor was the biggest challenge. 'Footwear is a very labor-intensive product to make,' Perumal says. And it's 10 to 12 times more expensive to hire workers in the U.S. than in factories overseas, he says. The team focused on its high-end work boots, a product with strong demand for an 'American built' label. They started by streamlining the process to add soles to the boots. In a traditional factory in Asia, adding soles would happen on a long production line. Instead, Keen turned to a process called direct injection fusing. The shoe's upper is loaded into a machine where heated polyurethane is molded into an outsole, bonding it directly to the rest of the shoe without glue. Robots also prep materials. In the new Kentucky factory, robots will also handle steps like 'flash' trimming of excess material. Even with advanced automation in place, it's still more expensive to make shoes in the U.S. than in other countries. Keen plans to continue making many of its shoes elsewhere, including in a factory that the company owns in Thailand. But making boots in the U.S. has some obvious advantages, and the brand plans to continue growing the number of products it makes in Kentucky. With a U.S. factory, Keen can more nimbly respond to demand from American customers if it needs to make more or less of a particular style. The carbon footprint of delivery is much lower, Perumal says. (Kentucky was chosen strategically since it's within a two-day drive of 80% of the U.S. population; the company already had a distribution center next door to the new factory.) And customers have made it clear that they want American-made work boots. 'We have seen a huge surge in the request for American-built products,' says Perumal. That's not to say that the rest of the footwear industry is necessarily likely to follow. Keen struggled to find and keep workers at its Portland factory, despite paying high wages. It also has to invest in training, since American workers no longer have experience making shoes. Because the company has to source components globally—and tariffs now apply to those parts—the cost of manufacturing in the U.S. is now growing even more. The company has pledged not to raise prices for consumers because of tariffs for the rest of the year, however. To encourage more American shoe manufacturing, Perumal says the government could help by eliminating tariffs on components. 'We don't have a supply chain ecosystem,' he says. 'All that's needed to make the shoes is outside the U.S. right now. It took 40 years to build this global supply chain.' Even if more factories relocated to America, it's not clear that there are enough workers who'd take traditional shoe manufacturing jobs. 'If you have 4% unemployment in the U.S., are we going to find 20,000 or 40,000 people that want to work for shoe company wages here?' he asks. 'Our economy has migrated more toward service.' The new Kentucky factory will create jobs, but at a small scale: the factory is initially launching with a lean team of 24 skilled production and operations staff. Robots will do the rest.
