- Adranos ― a Purdue University-affiliated company developing a novel high-performance, solid rocket fuel for long-range missile and space launch systems, announced it raised $1 million
Adranos ― a Purdue University-affiliated company developing a novel high-performance, solid rocket fuel for long-range missile and space launch systems founded by Chris Stoker, Brandon Terry, and Matthew Crawley ― has raised a $1 million oversubscribed round of funding. The company was initially targeting $750,000 in funding.
“We knew that there was a lot of interest in our company but were shocked with both the speed and amount of the funding that was offered to us. We actually had to turn several interested investors away,” said Adranos co-founder and CEO Chris Stoker.
After a successful launch of a prototype rocket and corresponding grand prize award at the Army’s inaugural xTechSearch competition, Stoker pointed out that additional funding was necessary to add key team members and scale up Adranos’ manufacturing capabilities.
For example, Stefan Coburn was hired as vice president of business development and strategy. Coburn previously worked at Blue Origin and led efforts to commercialize both New Shepard (a reusable suborbital launch vehicle) and New Glenn (a reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle). Coburn has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a degree in chemical engineering from Brigham Young University.
Stoker noted that the $1 million came from a group of investors, including Archibald Cox Jr. ― the lead investor from Adranos’ prior round. Cox is known as the chairman of Sextant Group Inc., a private investment firm and is the former chairman of Barclays of America and former CEO of Morgan Stanley International and several other companies. So far, Adranos has over $2 million in public and private funds to advance its interests.
And the technology used by Adranos is licensed through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization ― which patented the technology.
