Composite manufacturing tech startup Fabheads raises $10 million in round led by Accel

Composite manufacturing technology startup Fabheads has raised $10 million in a mix of debt and equity, led by Accel.

Of this, $2.3 million (Rs 20 crore) was raised from venture debt firm Trifecta Capital. The latest funding round brings the total funding raised by the Chennai-based startup to $13 million.

In an interaction with ET, Fabheads cofounder Dhinesh Kanagaraj said that the funds will be used to scale the firm’s manufacturing capacity, expand the leadership team, and strengthen its client-facing engineering as well as R&D divisions.


“The majority of the funds will be used for setting up a bigger manufacturing factory in Karnataka,” Kanagaraj said. “It is between 80,000 to 100,000 square feet in size and is already in the process of being made. We are looking at having over 70 big machines here.”

The facility is located at Bengaluru’s Aerospace Park at the KIADB area and is set to be completed in the next six months. Currently, the startup has its office and factory only in Chennai with 13 machines.

“Fabrication of composite materials into finished goods takes long hours of manual labour. To make the process efficient, we have developed an automated manufacturing process that makes it a lot more reliable,” said Kanagaraj.

“Even though the composite material is strong, it is brittle, so it can break easily, which makes it difficult to automate this process. We have developed a technology called Adaptive Toe Placement (ATP), which allows handling these materials in a more precise manner and makes extremely complex parts,” he added.

“As composites become increasingly vital across aerospace, defense, mobility, and renewable energy, Fabheads is addressing the core manufacturing bottlenecks that have long hindered widespread adoption,” said Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel, in a prepared statement.

Fabheads was founded in 2015 by former ISRO engineers Kanagaraj and Abhijeet Rathore. The firm offers design and manufacturing services to drone, robotics, and shipping companies across India and plans to expand internationally. Some of its current clients include Tata, ISRO, and Motherson Group, among others.