Nidus Raises $30M to Deploy Embodied Intelligence in America's Defense Factories

Backed by Kleiner Perkins and Costanoa, Nidus brings intelligent, autonomous systems that dramatically increase factory output, beginning with the wire harnesses inside every aircraft, missile, and vehicle

NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Nidus, the robotics company deploying embodied intelligence inside America's defense factories, announced $30 million in funding today, backed by Kleiner Perkins and Costanoa, with participation from Ludlow Ventures, SF1, Absolute Partners, Tau, and angel investors, including Chris Power, founder of Hadrian; Adrian Aoun, co-founder of Dulo, Foundational Industries and Seneca; and Nikhil Goel, Chief Commercial Officer at Archer.

America's defense industrial base has a capacity crisis. The country that once produced more than half the world's goods now relies heavily on overseas supply chains to manufacture parts for its own weapons systems. This constitutes a national security risk, and factories urgently need to increase output to meet demand.

Nidus builds embodied intelligence that lets traditional industrial robots perform precision assembly tasks. The company develops and deploys foundation robotics models across America's critical defense factories, using sovereign AI training practices. This lets each customer retain its collective knowledge, which is crucial in secure environments.

"I grew up in rural South Carolina and watched offshoring create the current industrial base crisis," said Justin Sealy, co-founder and CEO of Nidus. "At this point, we can't out-labor or out-scale our competition. We need to leapfrog the rest of the world by deploying physical AI that scales America's existing industrial capacity. This is why we started Nidus."

Nidus is deploying across the defense industrial base and quickly eclipsed seven figures in revenue in its first four months. The company is currently delivering customized models to automate wire processing on its proprietary platform, which was built from the ground up to meet Department of War security requirements.

"In physical AI, the value will accrue to players that prioritize deployment and customer value. And Nidus is the rare team that has actually deployed AI into the most locked-down environments in the country" said Aatish Nayak, partner at Kleiner Perkins. "The demand they're seeing is a testament to the value of their mission and product. We're thrilled to back Justin, Charu, Harrison, and Cane as they bring AI to the factories America's security depends on."

"The U.S. cannot rebuild industrial capacity through new construction alone. Nidus is taking a different approach, using AI and robotics to increase production inside existing factories," said Greg Sands, Founder and Managing Partner at Costanoa. "We backed Justin and the team at pre-seed because of their firsthand experience with the challenges of American manufacturing and their technical ability to address them. We believe Nidus has the potential to make a meaningful difference in how critical products are manufactured in the U.S."

Nidus will use this funding to grow its engineering team, expand from wire-harness automation into additional factory workflows, and scale production deployments with U.S. defense manufacturers.

"We only build for American institutions that are vital for securing democracy," added Sealy. "We believe in a future where American industry is self-sustaining and no longer dependent on foreign production. We're building the infrastructure to make that future a reality."

About Nidus

Nidus is the leading developer of industrial AI, purpose-built to augment America's manufacturing base. We are on a mission to equip the factories that enable American industry with embodied intelligence that radically scales operations. Founded by a team with decades of experience across machine learning, robotics, hardware, and defense tech, Nidus brings foundation models out of the lab and onto the factory floor. Learn more at nidus.tech.

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SOURCE Nidus Technologies