Fabheads, a deeptech startup focused on automating composite materials manufacturing, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel, with additional participation from Trifecta Capital. This brings the total capital raised by the company to $13 million, including its earlier seed and pre-seed rounds.
The new capital will be used to expand manufacturing capacity, grow the leadership team, and strengthen client-facing engineering and R&D functions, the company said in a statement.
Founded in 2015 by former ISRO engineers Dhinesh Kanagaraj and Abhijeet Rathore, Fabheads has developed proprietary automation systems for the complex and largely manual process of manufacturing with carbon fiber and other advanced composites.
鈥淗aving experienced the limitations of manual composite manufacturing firsthand during our time at ISRO, we knew an innovative disruption was necessary鈥攏ot incremental,鈥 said Dhinesh Kanagaraj, Co-founder and CEO at Fabheads. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not just automating a process鈥攚e鈥檙e redefining how high-performance parts using advanced materials can be made faster, better, and more affordably.鈥
Fabheads is among only seven companies worldwide to have successfully developed and commercially deployed automated solutions for fiber-based material manufacturing鈥攁 sector still heavily reliant on labor-intensive, hand-laying techniques. These traditional methods often lead to high material wastage, extended lead times, and significant human error. Fabheads鈥 robotic systems address these inefficiencies by automating key processes such as fiber placement and layering.
The company claims its technology can reduce production costs by up to 50%, cut material wastage by 20%, and accelerate production cycles by 30%.
鈥淯nlike more mature manufacturing sectors, the technology ecosystem for carbon fiber composites remains relatively underdeveloped,鈥 said Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel. 鈥淔abheads has built proprietary tech that competes with the best in the world in a space dominated by a few global players. With demand for composites rising across aerospace, defense, mobility, and clean energy, we believe Fabheads is solving a critical bottleneck.鈥
The funding comes at a time when India鈥檚 composite materials industry is undergoing a shift. Government-backed initiatives like the National Technical Textiles Mission and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes are pushing for domestic manufacturing of advanced materials鈥攊ncluding carbon fiber production, expected to begin by 2025鈥26.
To support growing demand, Fabheads will set up a larger manufacturing facility in Bengaluru. The facility will primarily serve the aerospace sector鈥攐ne of the most demanding use cases for composites鈥攚hile also scaling up to cater to international clients.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)