Ex-Anduril Engineer Raises $42M to Build the Amazon of Composite Parts

Prior to pitching his startup to investors, Zack Eakin fine-tuned his skills under the mentorship of Palmer Luckey.

After departing from Luckey’s defense venture, Anduril, in 2024 to found a composites enterprise named Layup Parts, Eakin gained invaluable insights into his pitch from Luckey and Anduril co-founders Brian Schimpf and Matt Grimm.

Eakin noted that each mentor brought unique perspectives: Grimm offered strategies for captivating VCs, Schimpf (Anduril’s CEO) pushed him to think critically about strategy, while Luckey focused on the art of storytelling, drawing from his fundraising expertise.

This concentrated training proved beneficial. Just two years earlier, Eakin had successfully raised $9 million in seed funding. Recently, the startup announced it has raised an additional $42 million in a Series A round led by the dual-use venture fund Marlinspike, bolstered by new investors Cerberus Ventures and Pinegrove Venture Partners, along with existing supporters Founders Fund and Lux Capital.

This marks a major milestone for the Huntington Beach, California-based startup, which currently employs around 60 people. A substantial portion of the funding will be earmarked for new hires. While most of the seed money went towards capital investments, Eakin intends to use this latest funding to grow the team and move to a larger facility, aiming to simplify the process of ordering custom carbon fiber or fiberglass parts to be as easy as online shopping.

With nearly two decades of experience in composite materials, Eakin’s journey began in motorsports. He started at Chip Ganassi Racing, working with carbon-fiber structures and body components, particularly for the company’s IndyCar teams and the innovative DeltaWing prototype.

Eakin took a brief detour to become the first engineer at Elon Musk’s Boring Company in 2017, but by 2021, he found his way back to composites when he joined Anduril.

While tunneling, Eakin witnessed transformative changes in industrial fabrication and manufacturing. Companies like SendCutSend and Protolabs had significantly lowered the time and costs related to prototyping and shipping parts, yet, as he pointed out, no one was addressing the complexities within the composites industry.

“I realized that while other sectors were advancing, finding sources for composite parts was still a challenge,” Eakin said. “Why isn’t anyone trying to change this?”

Eakin recognized the difficulties inherent in the composites field, where processes can be intricate, involving “more hands and scrutiny.” Additionally, consolidation among composite companies has made larger firms hesitant to innovate, as they aim to protect steady revenue streams. Even well-meaning firms often lack the software expertise needed to create a one-click or zero-click solution.

“With standard materials and a solid understanding, we can develop software that reduces the number of clicks engineers must take to create parts—ideally automating shape generation based on customer data,” he said with a smile.

Recognizing the need for progress, Eakin launched Layup Parts, perceiving the potential value that addressing these issues could unlock.

“I thought it would be beneficial for Anduril if I tackled this critical part of the supply chain, as it extends beyond just Anduril,” he remarked.

So far, he has been right. In the two years since Layup Parts was established, his team has quickly created prototypes and manufactured parts for a diverse clientele, including motorsports teams, design studios, and even pickleball paddle makers. The company has managed to cut down manufacturing times from weeks to hours in certain cases.

The main industries served are unsurprisingly aerospace and defense, which encompass both startups and traditional defense contractors, Eakin noted.

The potential is evident in the investor roster. Marlinspike, the leading investor, is already committed to Anduril and various defense-centric manufacturing companies. Cerberus Ventures, established in 2023 by Chris Darby, previously spent nearly twenty years managing In-Q-Tel, a venture firm associated with the CIA.

Reflecting on his experiences at Anduril, Eakin also applies lessons learned from his time at The Boring Company. Although there was no composite work there, he believes the skills are transferable within a startup atmosphere. The rapid, first-principles engineering style at The Boring Company resonated with his motorsport background.

“Elon has an incredibly high sense of urgency, so while the tasks were new, the environment of tight deadlines and rapid development felt quite similar,” he added.