Defense-tech firm Hadrian raises $1.37B at a $7.87B valuation

Defense-tech company Hadrian announced Thursday that it raised a fresh $1.37 billion round at a valuation of $7.87 billion from a long list of well-known investors. Lead investors include WCM Investment Management, Washington Harbour Partners, Valor Equity Partners, 137 Ventures, and Baillie Gifford. Participating investors include 1789 Capital, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, funds managed by Apollo and T. Rowe Price, and firms including CapitalG, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Altimeter, among others.

Founders Fund and Lux led the company’s $260 million Series C financing about a year ago, bringing the total Hadrian has raised to date to around $2 billion, according to PitchBook estimates.

Hadrian is notable among defense-tech companies in that it isn’t building new AI-powered weapons. Instead, the company builds automated manufacturing facilities that mass-produce parts for vehicles the military already relies on. In March, for instance, Hadrian opened a facility in Alabama to mass-produce parts for submarines, its fourth facility; the deal for that facility, structured as a public/private partnership, was valued at $2.4 billion, Hadrian said.

Why it matters

Hadrian’s approach — automating the supply chain behind existing defense hardware rather than building new weapons systems — is drawing some of the largest private-market checks in the defense-tech sector, a sign investors see more near-term value in manufacturing capacity than in novel weapons platforms.