Despite a fierce legal battle and a co-founder’s departure, the startup closes $12 million in funding to reinvent aircraft parts manufacturing
Founded by three former Anduril engineers, Salient Motion set out to streamline aerospace manufacturing by reusing software code across specialized aircraft parts—drastically cutting costs and development times. Their plans hit turbulence when Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey threatened to take “no mercy” and filed a lawsuit in September 2023, accusing Salient Motion of stealing code. In a countersuit, Salient Motion denied the allegations. Though the legal dispute settled in July 2024, it ruptured the founding team: co-founder Kai Yin left and subsequently sued Salient Motion over legal fees. Yet key investors, including Andreessen Horowitz’s Katherine Boyle—who also backed Anduril—continued to support Salient Motion, signaling confidence in its technology and mission.
By September 2024, the company closed a $4 million seed round that brought total funding to $12 million, allowing it to expand to 20 employees and establish a factory in Torrance, California. Salient Motion is advancing its model of building and certifying aircraft parts for both commercial and defense sectors by leveraging commonalities in motion control code—cutting a typical two-year part-certification cycle to under six months. With a growing client list and fresh capital, Salient Motion aims to transform an industry plagued by monopolistic suppliers and sky-high pricing, even leaving open the possibility of someday doing business with Anduril again.
