Divergent Applied sciences has raised $290 million in a Sequence E spherical, giving the agency a $2.3 billion valuation. The spherical included $250 million in fairness capital and $40 million in debt capital, led by Rochefort Asset Administration. Rochefort, a three way partnership of Hayman Capital Administration and Serengeti Asset Administration, focuses on protection manufacturing investments and is among the first licensed managers below the Small Enterprise Funding Firm Essential Know-how (SBICCT) Initiative. This program, run collectively by the U.S. Small Enterprise Administration (SBA) and the Division of Protection (DoD), which, following a current government order, is additionally known as the Division of Struggle, goals to lend cash to small companies working in areas of curiosity to the DoD. The thought is to mortgage cash to corporations on the slicing fringe of hypersonics or one of many 14 important expertise areas for the DoD. This system’s concept is to speculate as much as $4 billion into as many as 1,000. In accordance with the initiative, the common internet earnings needs to be lower than $8 million for 2 years, and the guide worth needs to be lower than $24 million. So I can’t be certain if this funding is made fully below the Essential Applied sciences Initiative or if Rochefort can do issues outdoors the scope of that settlement, or if Divergent’s income, burn, and valuation are a bit out of joint.
CEO Lukas Czinger mentioned,
“Divergent was based to remodel the constructed world with a software-defined manufacturing platform. This funding permits us to scale DAPS for aerospace and protection, broaden our world-class crew, and strengthen America’s industrial base with a very next-generation system.”
In the meantime, Rochefort Asset Administration’s Kyle Bass mentioned,
“Divergent is delivering precisely what America wants — a stronger, quicker, and extra adaptable industrial base. By uniting superior software program and {hardware} right into a single platform, Divergent is proving that the U.S. can out-innovate and out-produce on the worldwide stage. We’re assured this crew will redefine manufacturing and strengthen America’s place within the industries that matter most.”
The corporate says that it has labored with Aston Martin, Bugatti, and McLaren, and likewise collaborates with Normal Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Triumph Group, producing in 2025, “200 new aerospace and protection half numbers, bringing its whole to greater than 600 distinctive components throughout industries.” It additionally says that income grew 5 occasions in 2025. I’m a bit confused over the income scenario versus the valuation and eligibility standards for the Essential Applied sciences Initiative. Does this imply that at most Divergent’s income was $1.6 million final 12 months, and it now has a $2.3 billion valuation at lower than $8 million income, or am I lacking one thing?
Divergent has already secured $47 million in debt financing in 2024, bringing its whole to $816 million. The corporate raised $330 million from Hexagon in 2022 and has simply secured an extra $22 million from ex-Hexagon CEO Ola Rollén. I’m skeptical concerning the precise worth that Divergent is creating for its clients. Their Divergent Adaptive Manufacturing System (DAPS) is a superb idea. A versatile however scalable platform for producing most something is a good concept. However the firm has by no means managed to persuade us as to what sort of distinctive expertise it’s growing exactly. What distinctive sauce does the agency need to make such a manufacturing system work? To date, it’s been an organization that has helped design and print some components utilizing SLM Options machines. Sure, there are robots too, however the place is the magic? What can they do this different corporations cannot? The imaginative and prescient to me is great, and the advertising and marketing is nice. Their potential to search out cash is enviable as properly. However how can one agency make a versatile manufacturing expertise that others cannot? The place precisely is that this cash flowing to offer Divergent with lasting worth? There’s a lot to be gained via conveyancing and monitoring half geometries all through the manufacturing course of. By integrating QA, testing, design, and plenty of extra disparate components, the corporate might produce components higher than others. However, the place is any precise benefit coming from? And the way might they shore it up via investments made now?
A have a look at the Divergent 3D manufacturing facility. Picture courtesy of Marc Weisberg.
If we have a look at their web site, we will learn issues like;
“Manufacturing directions are despatched to the 3D printer, the place Divergent materializes particular person printed Nodes with application-specific alloys at industrial charges. Divergent’s common robotic meeting course of is totally software program outlined, assembling the printed nodes with out the necessity for design-specific instruments.”
Am I the one one who doesn’t perceive what this implies? Doesn’t it sound a bit overly sophisticated to you? You’re utilizing the precise steel to make a component on the similar pace as everybody else. And also you then stick them collectively? Certainly this isn’t every thing? Please, God, inform me the Division of Struggle didn’t simply spend a number of hundred million {dollars} on a glue gun caught to an ABB robotic arm? AI is now making it simple to puzzle collectively like 5 components routinely? I’m assuming that there’s a variety of welding, scanning, and rather more occurring. The place is the worth really being created? Is it in sticking collectively prints into bigger assemblies? How are the precise course of economics being improved? Why use AI in case you’re solely doing 600 completely different designs a 12 months? Perhaps it is going to make sense to me sometime, however for now, I simply don’t perceive what Divergent is as much as and the way it’s imagined to work.
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