Firestorm Labs, a California-based Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) manufacturer that is leading the charge in expeditionary additive manufacturing raises $12.5 million in seed investment by Lockheed Martin Ventures and prominent defense investors.
The $12.5 million funding will allow the company to expand its staffing, and add new drone production capacity to its existing 3D printing assets. The company says with AM, they could reduce the design-to-deployment time by a factor of 10, with craft produced “in hours, not weeks.” The process also costs just 20% of habitual methods, according to the startup.
Among the notable names who invested in Firestorm, we are not surprised to count Lockheed Martin that has already invested in several projects and companies involving AM technologies.
“Firestorm is excited to announce this latest round of funding that will propel the company forward to shape the rapidly evolving needs of a UAS-dominated battlefield and a defense industrial base ripe for revolutionary manufacturing models,” said CEO Dan Magy. “Our investors understand the pressing need for delivering technologies quickly and with the interoperability that today’s warfighters demand, and we are thrilled to welcome Lockheed Martin Ventures partnership in this mission.”
Other investors include Decisive Point, Silent Ventures, 645 Ventures, Overmatch VC, BVVC, Marquee Ventures, Cubit Capital, IronGate, Backswing Ventures, The Veteran Fund, Feld Ventures, Beyond Capital, and RedCat.
“We are a new approach to an emerging global challenge,” said Chad McCoy, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer. “There is a clear need within the defense technology sector to build faster and less costly systems, and simply throwing money at the issue won’t change the outcome. We found that coalescing a deep operational understanding of warfighter needs, combined with aerospace pragmatism, and a new rapid manufacturing model, allows us to stand out in a very crowded market. The goal is to create a completely new category that shakes up legacy timelines and cost.”
Firestorm has already won a range of U.S. Department of Defense contracts both for its modular UAS and the xCell manufacturing product line. This new capital will enable Firestorm to scale its team and production to meet growing demands for its products.
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