GoKawiilDefense tech startup Covenant on Wednesday announced the opening of a 105,000-square-foot factory in Dallas to accelerate lower-cost missile manufacturing for the U.S. military.
The startup, which is coming out of stealth and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, Lux, 8VC, Aleph and Lightspeed, also announced $250 million in funding over three rounds.
"What we're seeing now is an understanding that new market entrants can play a critical role in the defense ecosystem, and we're seeing that in this administration," Abby Denburg, Covenant's president and chief growth officer, told CNBC's Morgan Brennan.
Founded in 2024, Covenant's Anthem long-range heavy-payload cruise missiles offer another option for the U.S. military in a class of weapons dominated by the defense primes, such as RTX's Tomahawk. Covenant said the Anthem is a fraction of the cost of legacy systems.
The company said its Dallas factory will produce 1,000 of its Anthem long-range missiles in its first year, beginning serial production in Q1 2027, eventually scaling to 5,000 annually.
That output is sorely needed as the war in Iran stretches into its seventh month and the U.S. weapons stockpile rapidly dwindles, according to multiple reports.