Goodwin advises Foundry Robotics on its $100 million Series A financing and acquisition of robotics software company Avea Robotics.

Foundry Robotics raises $100 million Series A to build autonomous assembly factory. Foundry Robotics has announced an oversubscribed $100 million Series A funding round led by Marlinspike Partners, with participation from early backers Khosla Ventures and Red Glass Ventures, new investors SE Ventures, Wing VC and Axiom Ventures, as well as existing investors Hanabi and Zero Shot Fund. Foundry builds and operates autonomous factories for complex assembly, combining AI-powered robotic cells with experienced manufacturing experts. With the new funding, the company will build out its Emeryville facility, accelerate deployment of AI models into real-world manufacturing, and grow its robotics research, engineering and factory operations teams. Foundry has expanded its manufacturing footprint twentyfold to a 130,000-square-foot facility in Emeryville. The company currently serves defense and commercial industries, focusing on high-value, complex electro-mechanical products where production is constrained. Applications include drones, autonomous vehicle subassemblies, wire harnesses, underwater vehicles, telecom and data center infrastructure, ground robots, rugged computers, robot compute boxes and satellites. Adarsh Kulkarni, Founder and CEO of Foundry Robotics, stated: "We believe the factories that revive America's manufacturing sector will need to be rethought from the ground up rather than retrofitting one aspect in an existing factory. Our approach is to own the entire final assembly stack and integrate intelligence at every layer - own the buildings that manufacture for our customers while orienting them for robotics deployment. Our mission is to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and create more capacity to build and scale critical product assembly." Defense and industrial companies can design new hardware faster than ever, but manufacturing remains a critical bottleneck. Traditional assembly lines are built around a single product, take months to deploy, and are costly to reconfigure. Foundry takes a different approach, leveraging physical AI to build flexible assembly capacity that deploys quickly, adapts to different products and scales with demand. Duane Fotheringham, President of HII Unmanned Systems, stated: "Production capacity is a national constraint on getting unmanned systems to the fleet. Foundry's approach to autonomous assembly is exactly the kind of capability the defense industrial base needs right now." Through its manufacturing-as-a-service model, Foundry owns and operates the factory, taking customers from design to production in weeks without new production line investments or expensive retooling. Foundry trains AI models on the building blocks of assembly and deploys these models in a grid of robotic cells with manufacturing-grade precision. FoundryOS serves as a single agentic system linking the robots, the factory floor and the cloud. Every production run feeds back into the models, so the same cell that assembles a drone today can learn to build a satellite component tomorrow. Mislav Tolusic, Managing Partner at Marlinspike, stated: "The next era of industrial strength will belong to nations that can turn new designs into finished hardware the fastest. Defense and industrial equipment manufacturers urgently need more domestic assembly capacity, and Foundry is delivering. Their AI-powered factory offers scalable and flexible assembly capacity. We are impressed with the speed that Adarsh and Emmanuel are executing - assembling an impressive team, commissioning the first factory, and quickly signing customers." Adarsh Kulkarni co-founded Foundry with Emmanuel Lamacchia, the former Program Manager for the Tesla Model Y program. Adarsh brings robotics and defense industry experience as employee number 4 at Ghost Robotics, where he built legged robots for the U.S. military, and later was Scale AI's inaugural Head of Robotics. Emmanuel was the single-threaded owner for Tesla's Model Y, responsible for manufacturing approximately 1.5 million cars a year. The company's leadership team also includes former Tesla software leader Anup Karmakar and former Marine, Army and Air Force veterans who worked at Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. Founded in 2026 and based in Emeryville, Foundry Robotics is backed by Marlinspike Partners, Khosla Ventures, Red Glass Ventures, SE Ventures, Hanabi, Wing VC and other investors.

Foundry Robotics raises $100 million to build America's first ai-powered assembly factory. 28 October 2026 Key Takeaways * Foundry Robotics raised an oversubscribed $100 million Series A with Marlinspike Partners leading. * It will launch a 130,000-square-foot AI-powered assembly factory in Emeryville, California. * It is aimed at sectors such as defense, satellites and drones where the US is already over-working its production capacity. Building thousands of drones at a fast rate in America has been a major problem. Foundry Robotics raises $100 million to fix exactly that. The Emeryville, California startup announced the Series A on Wednesday. Marlinspike Partners led the oversubscribed round. The cash will help build what Foundry calls America's first autonomous factory for assembly. It will also fund more AI model deployment and bigger robotics, engineering and operations teams. Founded only this year, Foundry is moving fast. Who's building Foundry Robotics? Founder and CEO Adarsh Kulkarni knows robots. He was employee number four at Ghost Robotics, building legged robots for the US military. Later, he became Scale AI's first Head of Robotics. His co-founder, Emmanuel Lamacchia, brings serious knowledge of factories. At Tesla, he ran the Model Y programme. That meant producing roughly 1.5 million cars a year. The team also includes former Tesla software leader Anup Karmakar. There are also military veterans who worked at Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. Put simply, this crew has shipped hardware at scale before. That matters, because factories punish inexperience. One bad line decision can cost months. How Foundry's ai-powered factory works. Most robotics startups sell robots or software. Foundry owns and runs the factories itself, in what is known as manufacturing-as-a-service. Foundry builds AI-powered robotic cells on its floor. Its FoundryOS system then links those robots, the factory and the cloud. Every production run feeds data back into its models, so the system keeps getting smarter. For the customer, this means faster and more uniform production. Foundry says it can take a product from design to production in weeks. You don't need a new production line or costly retooling. For a defense contractor waiting on parts, that could shave months off a programme. Its sweet spot is complex electromechanical gear. Think drones, satellites, wire harnesses and underwater vehicles. Autonomous vehicle subassemblies, ground robots and data centre hardware are on the list too. The new 130,000-square-foot Emeryville facility grows its manufacturing footprint twentyfold. Who's backing the $100 million bet. In addition to Marlinspike, early Foundry backers like Khosla Ventures and Red Glass Ventures returned. New investors SE Ventures, Wing VC and Axiom Ventures joined. Existing investors Hanabi and Zero Shot Fund stayed on. The raise ranks among the top 3% of US deep-tech Series A rounds on record. That's rare air for a company this young. Earlier backing reportedly totalled around $14 million, so this is a massive step up. Marlinspike managing partner Mislav Tolusic says manufacturers urgently need more domestic assembly capacity. And he believes Foundry is quickly signing customers. America has a capacity problem. Duane Fotheringham, president of HII Unmanned Systems, put it bluntly: "Production capacity is a national constraint on getting unmanned systems to the fleet." That's where Foundry fits. Kulkarni argues the factories that revive US manufacturing must be redesigned from scratch, not patched up. The mission is to revitalize US manufacturing. Foundry isn't alone, either. Arda Industries launched this month with $232 million. Maven Robotics raised a $100 million Series A in September. Investors clearly smell a shift. Still, big claims need proof. An "autonomous factory" only counts if it delivers repeatable output at scale. Foundry now has the money to show it can. A published author and dedicated voice for tech startups and the crypto space, Omorogie Prince Alele makes the decentralized revolution accessible. Passionate about the decentralized revolution, he guides newcomers through the evolving landscapes of blockchain, gaming, and Web3. Through his clear, concise writing, Omorogie strips away the industry jargon, revealing the real-world impact of decentralized technology. Disclaimer VentureBurn is a media platform covering the latest in cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, venture capital, and the startup ecosystem. Opinions expressed on VentureBurn are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice. Before making any high-risk investments in digital assets or emerging technologies, readers should conduct their own due diligence. 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