Hadrian Raises $90 Million to Build Second Factory in Torrance

Manufacturing startup Hadrian Automation has raised $90 million to build a second autonomous factory in Torrance, with the goal of getting the new facility up and running by this summer.

Hadrian told CNBC that its planned 100,000-square-foot factory in Torrance—not far from its first factory location in Hawthorne—will be operational by this August. The startup, which aims to automate manufacturing processes for aerospace and defense companies, also plans to grow from 40 employees currently to around 120 by the end of this year.

The $90 million round—which appears to round out the $36 million that Hadrian reported raising in January, as dot.LA reported at the time—was co-led by Silicon Valley venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and previous backer Lux Capital. Investors Lachy Groom, Caffeinated Capital, Founders Fund, Construct Capital and 137 Ventures also participated in the funding.

As part of the deal, Andreessen Horowitz partner Katherine Boyle and Lux Capital partner Brandon Reeves will join Hadrian’s board.

“Chris’s realization after talking with hundreds of machine shops and even more machinists is the hard truth we can’t ignore: financial engineering doesn’t solve the core problem of making aerospace and defense parts faster and cheaper,” Boyle said in a statement provided to dot.LA. “You need to build automation and solve a complex engineering problem in the physical world to truly shore up the aerospace and defense supply chain.”

Hadrian CEO Christopher Power did not immediately return a request for comment. He told CNBC that the company now has three aerospace customers that build rockets and satellites for which Hadrian is manufacturing aluminum components, but did not disclose the companies’ names.

Hadrian wants to create factories that can automatically manufacture parts for rockets, satellites, jets and drones at a rapid pace with limited human interference. Power told CNBC that the startup’s existing factory in Hawthorne “can produce space and defense parts 10 times faster and more efficient than anyone else.”

“We’re not setting up factories that are like manufacturing lines—we’re building an abstract factory that you can drop any part into and it comes out the other side,” Power said. “As long as it fits within a certain size or certain material that we support, we can make anything within that.” The CEO added that Hadrian soon plans to expand its manufacturing offerings into hard metals like steel.