Defense tech start-up Anduril Industries raises $1.5 billion

Defense start-up Anduril Industries announced Wednesday that it raised $1.5 billion in funding for its Series F round, valuing the company at $14 billion.  

Anduril, the three-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company that ranked No. 2 in 2024, said it will use the new round of funding to increase hiring, expand its infrastructure and bolster its supply chain and processes. It said it also will use the funds to invest in Arsenal, a manufacturing platform that will power a new 500,000-square-foot factory dubbed “Arsenal-1,” capable of producing tens of thousands of autonomous military systems a year. 

The new $14 billion valuation is an increase from the $8.5 billion valuation it received following a $1.5 billion Series E in 2022. This latest round was co-led by Founders Fund and Sands Capital, and includes new investors Fidelity Management & Research Company, Counterpoint Global, and Baillie Gifford. Anduril has raised more than $3.7 billion to date. 

Launched in 2017, Anduril has looked to disrupt traditional defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman by doing its own product development and then selling to clients — as opposed to the traditional military contract-and-then-build process. 

Last year, Anduril launched several new drones that rely on its Lattice AI-powered command and control software used by the U.S. military and allies to direct human-assisted robotics systems to perform complex missions. 

The company’s push into boosting the manufacturing processes around autonomous weapons systems comes at a critical time for the defense production industry, which has been tested by the war in Ukraine. That conflict has “exposed a critical vulnerability in the United States’ ability to respond to crisis,” according to Anduril. “Slow and low production rates, inflexible processes and the development of exquisite, defense-specific, bespoke systems have hindered the ability to respond quickly to need,” the company said, noting that lead times to replenish key weapons and munitions average two years. 

“These lower-cost, higher volume, smarter systems — we believe that’s going to determine the nations who are successful going forward,” Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf said on “Closing Bell: Overtime” in May.