A 1:2 scale model of the Anduril Fury, a Multi-Mission Group 5 autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV), at Anduril’s headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, USA, on Thursday, December 14, 2023.
Kyle Grillo | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Defense startup Anduril Industries announced on Wednesday that it had raised $1.5 billion in Series F funding, valuing the company at $14 billion.
Anduril, three times CNBC Disruptor 50 Ranked companies No. 2 in 2024It said it will use the new round of funding to increase recruitment, expand infrastructure and strengthen supply chains and processes. The company said it will also use the funds to invest in Arsenal, a manufacturing platform that will power a new 500,000-square-foot factory called “Arsenal-1” capable of producing tens of thousands of autonomous vehicles per year. military system.
The new $14 billion valuation is an increase from its $8.5 billion valuation following a $1.5 billion Series E round in 2022. , Counterpoint Global and Bailey Gifford. To date, Anduril has raised more than $3.7 billion.
Launched in 2017, Anduril aims to disrupt traditional defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman by developing its own products and then selling them to customers, rather than traditional military contracts and then Construction process.
Last year, Anduril Launched multiple new drones The company relies on Lattice artificial intelligence command and control software used by the U.S. military and allied nations to guide human-assisted robotic systems to perform complex tasks.
The company’s push to advance its own manufacturing process for weapons systems comes at a critical time for the defense production industry, which has been tested by the war in Ukraine. Anduril said the conflict “exposed a serious weakness in the United States’ ability to respond to crises.” “Slow and low production rates, inflexible processes, and the development of sophisticated defense-specific custom systems hinder the ability to respond quickly to needs,” the company said, noting that the average cycle for replenishing critical weapons and ammunition is two years.
“These lower cost, higher volume, smarter systems, we believe will determine which countries are successful in the future,” Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf said. May said on “The Closing Bell: Overtime.”.
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