Hampton Roads has spent generations building and maintaining ships. Derren Burrell sees an investment opportunity in the companies that can help the region do more of that work.
Veteran Ventures Capital recently led a $2.5 million seed round in Portsmouth’s Radian Forge, which uses robotic welding to build metal components layer by layer. For Burrell, the firm’s president and founder, the investment reflects a broader need to bring new manufacturing companies into America’s defense supply chain.
“The Navy and the broader shipbuilding industry have a significant capacity problem, and solving it is going to require more than simply asking the existing industrial base to work harder,” Burrell said.
Radian Forge brought together several priorities for the firm, including national security, advanced manufacturing, maritime production and veteran leadership. Its CEO, Jeff Yeager, is a Marine Corps veteran who spent his career around ships and the people responsible for keeping them running.
Yeager repeatedly saw maintenance held up by parts that were difficult to source. In one case, a broken eye bolt took a ladder out of service. He said obtaining a replacement through the supply system would take months. Radian Forge scanned, modeled and printed a replacement within days.
That ability to respond quickly is part of what attracted Veteran Ventures Capital. Burrell sees the potential for Radian Forge to become an important supplier to the Navy and the wider maritime industry. Getting there will require the company to expand production while preserving its speed and technical execution.
“The key will be proving that it can scale while maintaining the speed and technical execution that got our attention in the first place,” he said.
The investment also points to what Burrell describes as a renewed appreciation within venture capital for businesses that manufacture physical products.
“For a long time, venture investing was heavily associated with software and asset-light businesses,” he said.
Defense demand reaches across ships, autonomous systems, propulsion, advanced materials and robotics. Those technologies need companies capable of manufacturing and delivering them at scale, Burrell said. He expects considerably more investment where industrial experience meets new technology.
For Hampton Roads, he sees an advantage in the shipyards, military installations, skilled workers, suppliers and institutional knowledge already concentrated here. Those resources give emerging companies access to customers, expertise and production capabilities in the same region.
“The opportunity is to combine that industrial heritage with venture-backed innovation and entrepreneurship,” Burrell said.
Yeager said Radian Forge will use the funding for additional machines, workers and material qualification. The company is working to establish the testing, quality systems and documentation needed for Navy acceptance of printed components.
Burrell’s broader thesis is that major defense contractors and shipyards need a new generation of suppliers alongside them. Companies such as Radian Forge must prove they can turn an initial capability into dependable production.
In Portsmouth, that investment thesis has a practical measure. More parts made and accepted for use mean less time spent waiting for them.
Yeager puts the goal in four words.
“Fewer ships sitting still.”
