Just five months after its founding, the hard-tech startup Parts of the system received a $9 million funding round led by Founders Fund to remodel its composites manufacturing business. Lux Capital and Haystack also participated.
The breakneck pace is greater than a subtle sign that investor appetite for technology solutions that address the problems of the U.S. industrial base is showing no signs of waning. But Layup was likely capable of close a large round of financing so quickly, at least in part because the founders themselves have deep experience with the problems plaguing domestic manufacturing.
Layup was founded by Zack Eakin, Hanno Kappen and Elisa Suarez; the trio met while working at The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s unique effort to remodel transportation through tunnels. Kappen went to work at the automated pizzeria Stellar Pizza, and Suarez worked at Rivian and the renewable energy company Heliogen.
Eakin, CEO of Layup, moved to Anduril in 2021 as director of mechanical engineering. He led the mechanical design of the company’s range of flying drone products, including the Roadrunner, which was simply the “Palmer [Luckey] idea when I began,” he said in a recent interview.
He says that Eakin would still be with Anduril if it weren’t for the idea of starting Layup. “It was born out of a need we felt in Anduril – a need that the world became so poignant while I was there,” he said.
Most areas of producing have modified over Eakin’s profession, with the exception of composites, he said. Companies resembling Protolabs, Xometry and Fictiv have innovated in processes resembling CNC machining, sheet metal cutting and injection molding. These corporations (and many others) have developed a seamless, almost Amazon-like experience in rapid hardware production that has left a lasting mark on the industry.
However, there has been no equivalent innovation in the production of composite parts. Eakin said there are several reasons for this. First, current composites manufacturers are not equipped to develop the software tools needed to do this job well; second, composites are more artisanal and tougher to automate at certain stages of the process. Therefore, bringing the number of individuals in the production loop to zero is inherently tougher.
Roadrunner is a good example: it has many composite elements, but obtaining them is time-consuming and expensive. It’s normal for an engineer to have to attend as much as two weeks to receive a quote from a manufacturer (versus 10 minutes for services like Protolabs); once the order is cut from the supplier, the wait time increases to a week or two for a small and easy part and to 4 or five months for something more complex or large.
Instead, Layup goals to return small parts inside three days, and for larger components, the company plans to return inside two weeks – all at a lower cost to the customer. “I think we can go 10 times faster, and when you factor in tooling and upfront costs, we can cost half as much as we normally would today,” Eakin estimated.
Overall, Eakin didn’t seem too concerned about the competition; many of the top composites corporations are owned by PE firms, and those firms are likely to focus on winning larger, longer-term contracts fairly than faster-deployment development programs, he said.
“I believe that the high-value, long-term contracts of tomorrow are being developed today,” he said. “If you work with development people, understand their needs and can supply them with high-quality parts, you will provide better service and put yourself in a better position to win contracts by focusing on what may make less sense in a boardroom that focuses on development and speed.”
Much of the work the company faces, where it would find a way to distinguish itself most strongly, is in the software domain, although it would likely be several years before Layup can accept any CAD model from customers and deliver some in a matter of days. However, this does not mean that the company is not moving quickly: because of the latest financing, Layup intends to launch an online factory producing parts for customers by the end of the third quarter of this yr.
That means the $9 million will go primarily to capital expenditures, resembling a larger building and more equipment, in addition to hiring on each the software side and plant technicians.
There has been much talk from Silicon Valley – often frantically – about the many woes facing America’s industrial base, including an aging workforce and an overreliance on tribal knowledge. But Eakin said what really motivates him is pondering about all the engineering students who need to build but face high barriers to entry resulting from outdated processes. Layup wants to alter that.
“The idea of providing this to young students so they can pursue the things they want to build — that’s what makes me excited about what we’re doing. I think that’s what happened to all other areas of manufacturing, and composites got left behind. Whether we fix the supply chain, the aging demographic or not, that’s cool. We’ll do that too. It’s great. What excites me most is the opportunity to deliver good composite parts and make them accessible to all people.”