---
title: "Composite AM startup Perseus Materials backed by defense giant"
url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/composite-am-startup-perseus-materials-lockheed-martin-funding/
date: 2026-02-11
modified: 2026-02-11
lang: en
author: "Tess Boissonneault"
description: "Perseus Materials, a young company that is promising to transform large-scale composite part production with its resin-based technology, has just received a strategic investment from American defense and aerospace giant..."
categories:
  - "Composites"
  - "Defense"
  - "Money & Funding"
tags:
  - "top news"
image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/perseus-lockheed-1-640x530.jpeg
word_count: 587
---

# Composite AM startup Perseus Materials backed by defense giant

Perseus Materials, a young company that is promising to transform large-scale composite part production with its resin-based technology, has just received a strategic investment from American defense and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin through its Ventures division. The funding will enable the startup, which was founded in 2022 as a spinout from Stanford, to grow its team and deliver its first hardware solutions.

As we spotlighted in our recent [Composite AM ebook](https://www.voxelmatters.com/voxelmatters-composites-am-focus-2026/), additive manufacturing technologies are revolutionizing how composite structures are made, enabling manufacturers to directly print reinforced plastic parts without the need for costly and time consuming molds. Perseus Materials founders Dan C. Lee and John Feist believe that their technology will further this revolution through faster production rates for large-scale composite parts.

"We’re not interested in making marginal improvements to 3D printing,” commented Daniel Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of Perseus Materials. “The fabrication of large, complex, expensive, and time-consuming structures that drive manufacturing cycles require new approaches to engineering and design. That’s why Perseus has developed an entirely new method for additive manufacturing that shapes materials in ways previously thought impossible."

[![Perseus Materials 3D printing composite AM Lockheed Martin funding](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/dan_lee_with_composite_0.jpg)](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/dan_lee_with_composite_0.jpg)Perseus Materials founder and CEO Dan Lee (Photo: Stanford)

While not a ton is known about the company's technology at this stage, here's what we do know about Perseus Materials' technology: it is a modular AM system that leverages fast-curing resins and continuous fibers to rapidly build large-scale composite structures. The resin in question, reportedly derived from an oil industry byproduct, was developed specially by Lee and his team as a response to chemistry limitations identified in turbine blade production. The production system itself could be described as a sort of hybrid between a 3D printer and more traditional machines.

In a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaVioWCTISs) about the process, we see the technicians pouring out a container of resin onto a sheet of glass fiber, which is then cured and shaped simultaneously. The technology also integrates a pulling mechanism, which means that parts of virtually any length can be made—a capability that is key to the technology's intended use for large-scale parts like wind turbine blades.

Interest in the process was piqued at JEC World 2025, where Perseus Materials won the Process, Manufacturing, & Equipment category for startups. Next month, at JEC World 2026 in Paris, the Tennessee-based company will be exhibiting its modular system and fabricating a 15-foot boat on site.

Prior to the Lockheed Martin investment, Perseus Materials had largely been operating thanks to backing by government grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. The company also partnered with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) through its Innovation Crossroads initiative, a two-year fellowship program aimed at supporting energy and advanced manufacturing technologies. The recent investment from Lockheed Martin Ventures will enable the young company to accelerate its technology development and explore various use cases, including internal blade components for wind turbines and naval defense applications. Ultimately, the goal is to introduce a more efficient approach for manufacturing large-scale composite structures, that does away with tooling and unlocks faster lead times and lower costs.

"Our work at Lockheed Martin Ventures supports promising companies that expand the U.S. industrial base and advance innovative technologies for the future of national defense,” said Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. “Perseus’ innovative composite production process can help accelerate design and prototype manufacturing while reducing costs and eliminating tooling, helping Lockheed Martin accelerate its ability to meet the needs of the Department of War and our nation’s warfighters.”