Manufacturing startup Divergent Technologies Inc. today announced that it has raised $290 million in a late-stage funding round to support its growth efforts.

The Series E round comprised $250 million in equity funding and $40 million worth of debt. Rochefort Asset Management was the lead investor. The deal, which comes about two years after Divergent Technologies’ previous $230 million raise, values it at $2.3 billion.

Divergent makes components for companies in the auto, aerospace and defense sectors. Its production lines are based on a manufacturing platform it calls the Divergent Adaptive Production System, or DAPS for short. The platform is powered by 3D printers, robots and artificial intelligence software.

The company launched in 2014 with an initial focus on the auto sector. Carmakers don’t need to supply the company with blueprints for the component they wish to produce, but only high-level parameters such as weight and surface area. Divergent creates a component design that meets the customer’s criteria and manufactures it with DAPS.

According to the company, its 3D printers use a manufacturing technique called power bed fusion. The components that Divergent produces start out as a thin layer of pre-heated powdered metal inside a 3D printer. A laser beam heats the powder, which causes the metal particles to coalesce into useful structures. Once the first layer of powdered metal is processed in this manner, the printer deposits additional layers and repeats the same process with each one.

Power bed fusion is one of several methods that 3D printers can use to make metal parts. What sets the technique apart is that it lends itself particularly well to making so-called lattice structures. Those are sturdy, lightweight components that are commonly used in vehicles and aircraft.

Divergent first moved beyond the auto sector in 2022 when it won a contract from General Atomics. Since then, it has inked manufacturing deals with dozens of other defense companies. Those new customers helped Divergent grow its revenue fivefold this year.

One of DAPS’ main selling points is that it can help defense companies reduce the number of components necessary to make an aircraft. A few weeks before today’s funding announcement, Divergent detailed that it had helped modernize a decades-old Raytheon Co. airframe design. The company says that it reduced the system’s part count by 80%.

Divergent will use the proceeds from its funding round to grow its manufacturing capacity. In parallel, the company plans to hire more employees and develop new products. Divergent currently offers a catalog of about 600 defense and auto parts. 

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