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Defense tech startup Anduril has close what will almost sure enough end up being one of the largest financial backing rounds of the yr : a $ 1.5 billion deal that prize the company at $ 14 billion .
Anduril has ambitions of becoming the next peachy American defensive measure contractor , joining a class of companies that has shrink to just five major house : Lockheed Martin , RTX , Northrop Grumman , Boeing , and General Dynamics . These company pull in billion in tax revenue from business with the U.S. Department of Defense , and their throttlehold on defense output is virtually downright .
But the Palmer Luckey - founded defence startup is looking to become a serious rival to these long - stand kingpins , and its late winnings have started to get out observance . in the first place this year , the company beat out Lockheed , Northrop and Boeingin a program to develop and screen small remote-controlled fighter cat valium prototypes . Anduril is also bet that it can have an edge in contracts simply by run faster than its competitors : make for a Silicon Valley mentality to defense production , which moves notoriously slowly .
This later round is a massive stone’s throw up from Anduril ’s prior $ 8.5 billion valuation set in December 2022 . The companyreportedly told investorsthat it had duplicate receipts to around $ 500 million last class , which would mean the current valuation is set at a 28x multiple . This is eminent by many standards for late - stage inauguration , but especially so for traditional defense companies : Lockheed Martin ’s taxation multiple is about 1.9x , establish on its current valuation and last year ’s revenues , while Boeing ’s is 1.3x . Albeit those lower multiples are on revenues that are billions of dollar higher : Lockheed Martinbrought in $ 67.6 billionin 2023 , and Boeing ’s tax income werenearly $ 78 billionfor 2023 .
Anduril ’s new funding round was co - result by Founders Fund , which lead Anduril ’s seed round in August 2017 and its Series A , and Sands Capital , which has participated in multiple IPOs since Visa ’s public offering in 2008 . Founders Fund ’s involvement is hardly a surprise , though , given the firm ’s long - standing wager on Anduril . The company ’s co - founding father and executive chairman , Trae Stephens , is also a Founders Fund partner . The round also saw new involvement from some major institutional investors , like Fidelity Management & Research Company , and Baillie Gifford .
The company said in a statement that the new financing will serve scale a new package - defined manufacturing platform call “ Arsenal , ” start with the Arsenal-1 factory . That facility will increase Anduril ’s production space by over 5 million satisfying foot to manufacture “ ten-spot of thousands of autonomous military system ” per year , with a workforce of more than 1,500 people .
A separate manifesto outlines Anduril ’s rationale for scaling manufacturing specifically . The company ’s intention is to “ hyper - scale ” defense production and to produce defense systems at a plate that is not currently potential for dainty military systems . But Anduril is not focused on cook a few very expensive , keen system ; it ’s rivet on producing many multiplication more cheap products , which can be hyper - scaled with a rebooted factory . Arsenal is meant to be exactly that : an adaptable , replicable model that “ scales indefinitely and makes it potential to reconstruct the armoury of democracy . ”
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Not only that : Anduril say the centrality of package will also make the factory even more efficient over time , with the Arsenal Operating System facilitating quicker , cheaper manufacture . This will no doubt have an essence on the products themselves , which Anduril say will be originate to be less dependent upon extremely - specialized Department of Labor . It can also aid maximise the use of readily available portion and make iterative changes to products quickly .
The 7 - year - old company ’s achiever with the government and private investors has facilitate spur a boom of interest in defence tech , a sphere that had been previously thought of as virtually uninvestable due to the long timelines in government activity contracting . However , it ’s unreadable if Anduril ’s rise tide will truly lift all boat or if Anduril will be ( as is so often the fount in Silicon Valley ) the exception , not the rule .
The narrative has been update to ruminate that Lockheed ’s 2023 revenue was $ 67.6 billion .
