Startups & Funding
Layup Parts secures $42M Series A to simplify composite ordering
Layup Parts raised $42 million in a Series A round to automate the manufacturing of custom composite parts, aiming to make the ordering process as easy as Amazon.
On Tuesday, Huntington Beach, California-based startup Layup Parts announced it has raised $42 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by Marlinspike, a dual-use venture fund—a term referring to technology with both commercial and military applications. Other participants in the round include:
- New investors Cerberus Ventures (which started in 2023) and Pinegrove Venture Partners
- Existing backers Founders Fund and Lux Capital
The new funding follows a $9 million seed round that the startup raised two years ago.
Founder Zack Eakin started Layup Parts after identifying a persistent bottleneck in the supply chain for composite materials, which include carbon fiber and fiberglass. Eakin has worked with composite materials for around two decades, beginning his career in motorsports at Chip Ganassi Racing, where he worked with carbon-fiber structures. In 2017, he joined Elon Musk’s Boring Company as its first engineer, before moving to defense technology startup Anduril in 2021. He left Anduril in 2024 to launch Layup Parts. Eakin noted that while other manufacturing sectors have modernized, composite manufacturing has lagged due to manual processes and a lack of software innovation. “I just decided this might be the best thing I can do for Anduril, is to go fix this part of the supply chain, because I don’t think it’s just an Anduril problem,” Eakin said.
Layup Parts, which employs 60 people or so, aims to make ordering custom composite parts as easy as purchasing items on Amazon. The startup is building software to automate the transition from customer data to physical manufacturing, aiming for a zero-click ordering process. By automating these steps, the company has already reduced the time between receiving customer data and manufacturing a part from weeks to hours in some cases. Its customer base spans motorsports, design studios, and pickleball paddle companies, though its largest business lines are in aerospace and defense. This customer base includes both startups and traditional defense primes, which are large, primary contractors for defense agencies.
Why it matters
Layup Parts is attempting to modernize the supply chain for custom composite parts by using software to reduce manufacturing time and complexity, aiming for a zero-click ordering process.