HADRIAN

Chris Power, an Australian-born entrepreneur, identified a critical vulnerability in the US defense industrial base: the machine shops that make precision parts for rockets and fighter jets are mostly small, family-owned businesses. The average owner is 65+ years old.

Few young people are entering the trade. When these shops close, the knowledge and capability disappear.

Power founded Hadrian in 2020 to build a new generation of software-automated manufacturing facilities that can produce the same quality parts without depending on decades of tribal knowledge.

Hadrian builds and operates software-driven precision manufacturing facilities. They use CNC machines (computer-controlled cutting and shaping tools) automated by proprietary software to make complex metal parts for aerospace and defense customers.

Revenue comes from selling manufactured parts to companies like SpaceX, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin. The software automates programming, quality inspection, and production scheduling — dramatically reducing the human expertise required.

Autonomous precision manufacturing facilities, Software-driven CNC machining, Aerospace-grade metal parts, Rapid quoting and production scheduling, Quality inspection automation

Build more autonomous factories to increase capacity. Win larger contracts from defense primes (Lockheed, Northrop, RTX) and commercial space companies (SpaceX, Blue Origin).

Expand into adjacent manufacturing categories beyond precision machining. Become the default digital-native supplier for the entire defense and space supply chain.

Precision machining is incredibly difficult to automate — every part is different, tolerances are measured in thousandths of an inch, and mistakes are catastrophically expensive (a bad part on a rocket can cause a failure). Building software that can handle this variety and precision is the core technical challenge.

Winning trust from defense customers who have worked with the same suppliers for decades is the commercial challenge.

Andreessen Horowitz, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, A.Capital Ventures, Construct Capital