The VC shift in direction of elevated funding in geopolitical bottlenecks seems to be much less and fewer like a fleeting fad and extra like a tectonic shift in the place world funding {dollars} are inserting their bets for the lengthy haul. SWISSto12’s €73 million haul on the finish of January is a wonderful instance: as Joris Peels famous, the satellite tv for pc element disruptor is attracting the form of investor who seems to be on the world manufacturing order and asks themselves, “…what when you might use 3D printing as a lever to vary the world? What when you can personal an utility and, in so doing, assist nations decide their very own destiny?”
One other good instance was Caracol’s $40 million Collection 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 throughout the additive manufacturing (AM) business. We’re seeing this wave proceed in 2026, and the most recent 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 in truth epitomizes this setting during which VC is shifting 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 new frontiers.”
Perseus Supplies actually suits that description, with the corporate’s co-founder and CEO, Daniel Lee, telling 3DPrint.com’s Vanesa Listek in a current interview, “We’re not attempting to make 3D printing slightly higher. We have been asking why a few of its core limitations exist within the first place.” Particularly, as Listek describes, Perseus leverages a precept referred to as ‘frontal polymerization’ to speed up the resin’s drying course of with no want for expensive 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 satisfy 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 increase the U.S. industrial base and advance revolutionary applied sciences for the way forward for nationwide protection. Perseus’ revolutionary composite manufacturing course of can assist speed up design and prototype manufacturing whereas lowering prices and eliminating tooling, serving to Lockheed Martin speed up its capacity to satisfy the wants of the Division of Struggle and our nation’s warfighters.”
Adam Hammer, CEO and co-founder of Roadrunner Enterprise Studios, mentioned, “Perseus is precisely the type of firm Roadrunner exists to construct — a breakthrough know-how born from deep science with clear implications for safety and competitiveness. Dan and his crew are fixing a foundational manufacturing bottleneck that has held again whole industries. That is the type 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 have to view it as an indication that Perseus might be pivoting from wind to protection. First off, Lockheed has intensive expertise in offering clear vitality options, together with offshore wind vitality, which might mix each of Perseus’ key areas of curiosity, maritime and cleantech.
Secondly, by way of Lockheed’s GridStar Movement know-how, the protection prime has already demonstrated an exemplar of the truth that there may be more and more no distinction between protection and vitality resilience. On the finish of 2024, for example, Lockheed accomplished set up of a GridStar Movement system at Colorado’s Fort Carson. This aligns with the argument I made in a current publish 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 up to date nationwide safety crucial in its truest kind. If that know-how also can 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 numerous corporations attempting to do comparable issues to what Perseus is doing by way of 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 economic system that Perseus is concentrating on — and that’s what counts. In the event you 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.
Photographs courtesy of Perseus Supplies
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