Former Anduril Engineer Raises $42 Million to Create the “Amazon” of Composite Materials

Layup Parts, the startup founded by former Anduril engineer Zack Eakin, has raised $42 million in Series A funding, led by the investment fund Marlinspike. Cerberus Ventures and Pinegrove Venture Partners also participated in the round, while existing investors Founders Fund and Lux Capital provided renewed support.

The new funding comes two years after the company raised its $9 million seed round.

Before founding Layup Parts in 2024, Zack Eakin worked at the defense tech company Anduril. While preparing his business plan, he received advice from the company’s co-founders, including Palmer Luckey, Brian Schimpf, and Matt Grimm.

He brings nearly two decades of experience in composite materials, having started his career in motorsports with Chip Ganassi Racing, where he worked on carbon fiber structures for IndyCar racing vehicles and the pioneering DeltaWing prototype.

In 2017, he became the first engineer at Elon Musk’s Boring Company, before returning to the composites space in 2021 through Anduril.

During his tenure at Anduril, Eakin realized that several sectors of industrial manufacturing had already been significantly modernized. Companies like SendCutSend and Protolabs had drastically reduced the time and cost of prototyping and manufacturing parts.

However, a similar transformation had not occurred in the field of composite materials, where processes remained complex and highly dependent on manual labor. At the same time, market concentration among larger players limited the incentives for innovation.

This realization led to the creation of Layup Parts, with the goal of drastically simplifying the ordering and production of carbon fiber and fiberglass parts, offering an experience comparable to an e-commerce platform like Amazon.

In just two years of operation, Layup Parts has already managed to reduce the time from receiving data to manufacturing a part from weeks down to just a few hours in some cases.

The startup already serves clients across various industries, including motorsport teams, design studios developing prototype vehicles, and even pickleball paddle manufacturers.

Its most significant business, however, comes from the aerospace and defense sectors, partnering with both startups and traditional defense contractors.

The presence of investors with strong ties to the defense and government sectors further strengthens the company’s prospects. Among them is Marlinspike, which has also invested in Anduril, as well as Cerberus Ventures, founded in 2023 by Chris Darby, former head of In-Q-Tel, the investment organization backed by the CIA.