Ex-Anduril engineer raises $42M to build the Amazon of composite parts
Layup Parts raised a $42 million Series A to automate custom composite-part ordering and production. The startup says it is cutting lead times from weeks to hours.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
Former Anduril engineer Zack Eakin says Layup Parts is trying to make ordering carbon-fiber and fiberglass parts as easy as buying online. The company has grown from a $9 million seed round to a $42 million Series A as it expands hiring and moves into a bigger facility.
Layup Parts is trying to become an online store for special strong parts made from carbon fiber and fiberglass. Instead of waiting weeks for a custom shop to make them, customers can get them made much faster, almost like ordering a package online.
Analysis
What Layup Parts is building
Zack Eakin founded Layup Parts in 2024 after leaving Anduril, where he had worked on composites. His goal is to make ordering custom carbon-fiber and fiberglass parts feel as simple as buying something online, with much less manual back-and-forth than traditional manufacturing.
Why investors backed it
The company announced a $42 million Series A led by Marlinspike, with new investors Cerberus Ventures and Pinegrove Venture Partners joining and existing backers Founders Fund and Lux Capital participating. The round follows a $9 million seed raise two years ago. Eakin says the new capital will mainly go toward hiring and moving into a larger facility this year.
The problem it is targeting
Eakin argues that other manufacturing areas have already improved thanks to companies like SendCutSend and Protolabs, but composites have not seen the same kind of software-driven streamlining. He points to the complexity of composites, the need for more hands-on oversight, and industry consolidation as reasons innovation has lagged.
Layup Parts says it is trying to reduce the number of steps required to turn customer data into a finished part, moving from weeks to hours in some cases. Eakin describes the long-term aim as a near-zero-click workflow, where software can take customer inputs and produce shapes with minimal manual intervention.
Early traction
The startup says it already works with customers in motorsports, design studios, pickleball paddle companies, aerospace, and defense. Eakin says those two latter categories are the biggest business lines, including both startups and established defense primes.
The founder's background
Eakin's path runs through motorsports, Chip Ganassi Racing, The Boring Company, and then Anduril. He says lessons from those jobs shaped Layup Parts, especially fast execution, first-principles engineering, and operating under aggressive deadlines.
Key points
- Layup Parts raised a $42 million Series A led by Marlinspike.
- The startup says it wants to make custom composite parts as easy to order as products on Amazon.
- Eakin says the company has already cut some turnaround times from weeks to hours.
- Its biggest business lines are aerospace and defense, along with motorsports and other niche customers.
- The new funding is mainly for hiring and moving into a bigger facility.
If Layup Parts keeps cutting the time from design data to finished parts, it could become a faster supplier for industries that need custom composite pieces. The funding also gives it room to hire and expand into a larger facility, which could help it serve more customers.
The company still has to prove that composites can be standardized and automated enough to scale without losing quality. It also faces a difficult manufacturing category with more hands-on complexity than other fabrication businesses.
