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Q5D, an automated wiring harness assembly startup, closed a $13.5 million fundraise co-led by Lockheed Martin Ventures, CEO Stephen Bennington tells Axios Pro exclusively.

Why it matters: The Bristol, United Kingdom-based startup expects to seek an additional $4 million to $5 million in corporate investment this year, Bennington says.

What's next: Q5D is targeting a Series B raise in the tens of millions in the next two years, Bennington says.

"We want to manufacture as much as we can locally, so the B-Series money will be used for that," he says.

The company would be open to suitors eventually, he adds.

Follow the money: Q5D had a pre-money valuation of $26 million, he says.

The funding includes a $10.9 million Series A from Lockheed and existing investors Chrysalix and Maven SWIF, plus a $2.6 million grant from Innovate UK.

SOSV, UKI2S, UntroD and CPI Enterprises joined in the fundraise.

How it works: Q5D created a five-axis additive manufacturing robot to help automate appliance, defense and automotive supply chains.

The robot can produce parts on demand and embed wiring, eliminating the need to manually fit wiring into harnesses.

State of play: Vehicles and appliances increasingly feature more sophisticated electronics.

Automakers, appliance makers, defense contractors and suppliers rely on workers to manually fit bundles of cables and wiring into cars, refrigerators and other products.

Workers perform the labor-intensive task in plants in countries like Mexico and Morocco.

Businesses are facing mounting pressure to manufacture more locally while exploring automation to trim costs.

By the numbers: Automakers could lower wiring costs by $200 per compact vehicle, the startup estimates.

What they're saying: "If a lot of your supply chain comes from Mexico, and that's suddenly going to cost you a vast amount of money, that's a risk," Bennington says, with the changing tariff landscape.

"Pretty much everything that we do has some type of cabling system in it," Lockheed Martin Ventures VP and general manager Chris Moran tells Axios.

Q5D successfully automating assembly would provide "another element in that digital warehouse," Moran says.

Case in point: Q5D can print parts in 3D with a CAD file. 

"Hopefully, within less than a day, or within a couple of days, you can have that part," Moran says.

What we're watching: While a defense contractor, appliance maker or automaker could eventually acquire Q5D, Bennington thinks a wiring harness manufacturer would be the best fit.

"If we go to an automaker, then they're not so interested in all the stuff we're doing, [in] consumer electricals, ... the defense sector."

"If it is one of the very large wiring harness companies, then they're likely to value it based around the entire market they can address," he adds. 

Major wiring harness players include Cerberus Capital Management-backed Electrical Components International, which acquired Promark Electronics in 2021. 

Exclusive: Automated wiring assembler Q5D raises $13.5M

The startup serving automotive, appliance and defense supply chains boasted a pre-money valuation of $26 million.

illustration of a car looking like a circuit board

Q5D, an automated wiring harness assembly startup, closed a $13.5 million fundraise co-led by Lockheed Martin Ventures, CEO Stephen Bennington tells Axios Pro exclusively.Why it matters: The Bristol, United Kingdom-based startup expects to seek an additional $4 million to $5 million in corporate investment this year, Bennington says.

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Exclusive: Automated wiring assembler Q5D raises $13.5M

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