Salient Motion, an aerospace and defense component supplier, announced it has closed $12 million in total funding, preseed and seed rounds, to transform the design and manufacturing of critical motion control components. This funding was led by Cantos Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, AE Ventures, Hummingbird Ventures, and BoxGroup.
Launched in 2022, Salient Motion is reimagining motion control design, focusing on building and certifying modular actuation systems for highly regulated industries such as aerospace, military defense, and advanced manufacturing. And the team was built with an initial focus on building flight certifiable systems for commercial aviation that can be reused across multiple component categories.
Since the initial launch, Salient Motion has expanded its product portfolio to serve a multitude of industries including military, aviation, and the industrial sector. And this expansion leverages the company’s core expertise in stringent regulatory environments to address similar challenges in adjacent markets. Driving every Salient Motion product is a proprietary motion control library driving electrical efficiency and cost improvements across a wide variety of electromechanical components.
Electromechanical systems are essential for aircraft operations, heavy industrial equipment, and military programs. And Salient Motion’s technology aims to address longstanding challenges across these industries, driven by stringent, but often necessary regulatory processes, that result in high costs, supply chain vulnerabilities, and lengthy certification timelines.
Salient Motion’s primary innovation is its modular motion control platform from software to hardware. And the company is utilizing silicon to push complexity in airborne systems from hardware to software. And certifying this software to FAA standards across multiple functions and Design Assurance Levels (DALs) creates a library of certifiable “building blocks.” Salient Motion customers – OEMs and defense Primes – can leverage these building blocks to dramatically reduce development time and cost for new components.
The key features of the Motion Control Platform include:
— Modular design architecture enabling significant reusability across different components and DALs.
— Increased reliance on software for functionality traditionally managed by hardware.
— A streamlined approach to FAA certification, with the goal of reducing approval times by 50%.
— Enhanced reliability and maintainability, extending component lifespans and decreasing time and cost dedicated to maintenance.
— Focus on partnership (not purchase orders) with OEMs. And customers benefit from zero NRE and aftermarket revenue shares.
Salient Motion’s journey started in a two-car garage in Irvine, California where a team of aerospace engineers, frustrated by their experiences working with legacy suppliers, decided to take a deep dive into understanding why so many critical components were single-sourced by incumbents who were slow to update and improve products.
The $350 billion aerospace component market faces some of the largest barriers for entry, with decade-long certification processes and entrenched incumbents discouraging competition. And with over 3 million discrete components in modern aircraft, Salient Motion aims to disrupt this landscape.
The most recent funding round will be used to scale Salient Motion’s engineering team, accelerate product development, and expand its manufacturing footprint in Southern California with a new lease in Torrance. And the funding enables the company to expand the executive and engineering team with key hires to continue overall momentum. Salient Motion is currently pursuing its first FAA certified component, with a portion of the funding earmarked for development and certification of the next components.
Salient Motion has a solid customer base and has already secured a partnership with a leading commercial aircraft manufacturer, marking a significant milestone in the company’s growth and validation of its innovative approach. And Salient Motion’s target market includes major aircraft manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers and systems integrators across commercial aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles and maritime applications.
KEY QUOTES:
“The aerospace and defense industrial base has been plagued by single-source components designed and certified decades ago. Suppliers have shifted into a margin first mentality, driving growth with price increases and anti competitive tactics instead of innovative engineering. Our approach isn’t just recreating parts – it’s about fundamentally rethinking the OEM-supplier relationship. This funding accelerates our mission, bringing much-needed innovation to the aerospace and defense supply chain.”
- Vishaal Mali, CEO of Salient Motion
“Salient Motion represents exactly the kind of transformative thinking we look for in our investments. The company’s approach to modular, software-driven component development has the potential to reshape Aerospace and Defense, driving down costs and improving reliability across the board. We’re excited to support their growth and vision for the future of aircraft manufacturing.”
- Ian Rountree, General Partner at Cantos Ventures
