The VC shift in the direction of elevated funding in geopolitical bottlenecks seems much less and fewer like a fleeting fad and extra like a tectonic shift in the place international funding {dollars} are inserting their bets for the lengthy haul. SWISSto12’s €73 million haul on the finish of January is a superb instance: as Joris Peels famous, the satellite tv for pc part disruptor is attracting the type of investor who seems on the international manufacturing order and asks themselves, “…what for those who may use 3D printing as a lever to vary the world? What for those who can personal an utility and, in so doing, assist nations decide their very own destiny?”
One other good instance was Caracol’s $40 million Sequence B spherical final yr, which bolstered the momentum that’s carrying a wave of large-format, robotic-arm techniques to a place of upper stature inside the additive manufacturing (AM) business. We’re seeing this wave proceed in 2026, and the newest proof is that Lockheed Martin Ventures has made a strategic funding in large-format robotic arm composite AM firm Perseus Supplies, a Knoxville-based startup that has been backed since its early phases by Roadrunner Enterprise Studios.
Roadrunner Enterprise Studios actually epitomizes this atmosphere wherein VC is transferring from “digital,” software-driven performs to “bodily,” hardware-centric investments. The studio’s co-founder, America’s Frontier Fund (AFF), ambitiously states that its mission is nothing lower than “…to construct the capability wanted for America to endure because the world’s finest place for innovators to achieve for brand spanking new frontiers.”
Perseus Supplies definitely suits that description, with the corporate’s co-founder and CEO, Daniel Lee, telling 3DPrint.com’s Vanesa Listek in a latest interview, “We’re not attempting to make 3D printing a bit higher. We had been asking why a few of its core limitations exist within the first place.” Particularly, as Listek describes, Perseus leverages a precept generally known as ‘frontal polymerization’ to speed up the resin’s drying course of and not using a want for pricey peripheral infrastructure like curing ovens.
Perseus Supplies plans to make use of the Lockheed funding to start increasing each its bodily footprint and its personnel, because the startup begins to meet its first orders. Along with Perseus’ deal with wind generators, the corporate has additionally been exploring the viability of its tech for naval functions.
In a press launch about Lockheed Martin Ventures’ strategic funding in Perseus Supplies for an undisclosed quantity, Lockheed Martin Ventures’ VP and normal supervisor, Chris Moran, mentioned, “Our work at Lockheed Martin Ventures helps promising corporations that broaden the U.S. industrial base and advance revolutionary applied sciences for the way forward for nationwide protection. Perseus’ revolutionary composite manufacturing course of may also help speed up design and prototype manufacturing whereas lowering prices and eliminating tooling, serving to Lockheed Martin speed up its potential to fulfill the wants of the Division of Battle and our nation’s warfighters.”
Adam Hammer, CEO and co-founder of Roadrunner Enterprise Studios, mentioned, “Perseus is strictly the sort of firm Roadrunner exists to construct — a breakthrough expertise born from deep science with clear implications for safety and competitiveness. Dan and his group are fixing a foundational manufacturing bottleneck that has held again whole industries. That is the sort of innovation that may reshape how America builds at scale.”
Probably the most intriguing angle to Lockheed’s funding right here is that there’s no must view it as an indication that Perseus might be pivoting from wind to protection. First off, Lockheed has intensive expertise in offering clear power options, together with offshore wind power, which might mix each of Perseus’ key areas of curiosity, maritime and cleantech.
Secondly, through Lockheed’s GridStar Circulate expertise, the protection prime has already demonstrated an exemplar of the truth that there may be more and more no distinction between protection and power resilience. On the finish of 2024, for example, Lockheed accomplished set up of a GridStar Circulate system at Colorado’s Fort Carson. This aligns with the argument I made in a latest submit about how AM needs to be utilized as an enabler of sustainability-as-security.
Thus, by specializing in grid resilience, Perseus is already leaning into the modern nationwide safety crucial in its truest kind. If that expertise can even in some unspecified time in the future be used for structural parts of U.S. naval vessels, that might be icing on the cake.
There are lots of corporations attempting to do related issues to what Perseus is doing when it comes to its core tech, however there aren’t practically as many as you’d suppose who’re making use of it to the exact areas of the financial system that Perseus is focusing on — and that’s what counts. If you happen to issue within the proximity of Perseus’ headquarters to each Oak Ridge Nationwide Laboratory (ORNL) and the Institute for Superior Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), the corporate is completely positioned to capitalize on the rising public-private consensus surrounding the necessity for enhanced grid stability.
Photos courtesy of Perseus Supplies
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