Back at the table
Anduril seeks a new round of investment
Fresh on the heels of several strategic acquisitions, and less than a year after raising $1.5 billion, Anduril is back looking for another infusion of cash.
Bloomberg reports that Anduril Industries is looking to raise $400-500 million—potentially in the form of convertible notes. This new raise seeks a $10 billion valuation, up marginally from the $8.5 billion that investors valued the company last year in their Series E raise.
I think both the raise and the valuation make sense and are fair to the company.
This fundraise is also a good bellwether for the broader defense technology community.
While I’m not privy to the inner machinations of the company, I suspect it will look to use the new cash for some additional acquisition-based growth.
As a company, Anduril focuses on AI-enabled autonomous systems that integrate with its Lattice OS. For example, it’s recent acquisition of Blue Force Technologies, expanded its offerings of high-end autonomous drones. Similarly, its acquisition in 2022 of Dive Technologies, brought the company to the autonomous underwater vehicle space.
Other areas where Anduril has sought market capture include counter-drone systems, solid rocket manufacturing, counter intrusion, and mission command systems.
Their previous investments raise the question of where future investments might go. Again, I feel it necessary to highlight that I am not privy to what’s going on inside the company’s strategy and corporate development teams, but suspect that it will continue to focus on hardware-focused companies capable of integrating with Lattice OS; smaller, bootstrapped teams; and with revenues of $10-100 million per annum.
If that describes your company, reach out to Anduril. Don’t know how? Reach out to me and I’ll help.
I don’t think we’ll see them continue to consolidate in markets (like AUVs or UASs), but could see them expand horizontally more. We could see Anduril expand into space technologies, human-machine interfacing, directed energy, or ground robotics. Time will tell! But I’m excited for them and to watch them continue to disrupt the defense industry!
Keep building!
Andrew