Exclusive: Senra eyes third factory following $65M raise

Senra Systems, a wire-harness startup, plans to open a third factory and hire engineers and technicians on the heels of a $65 million Series B.

Why it matters: Wire harnesses are a major national-security bottleneck, as they serve as the nervous systems inside everything from munitions to aircraft, satellites to cars.

"Without wire harnessing, nothing turns on," CEO Jordan Black told Axios.

"We are standardizing something that's never been standardized before," he said, "and that's the only way to scale this."

State of play: Senra already has two factories, about an hour apart in California. The location of the third is still being scouted.

"Factory one is really: Can we build a wire-harness factory? Then factory two is: Can we scale a wire-harness factory?" said Black, a SpaceX alumnus.

Zoom in: At the heart of Senra's operations is Amp, software that folds together quoting, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain management and production.

"In aerospace and defense," Black said, "not only is the complexity higher, but the materials that go into it are very complex, too."

Follow the money: The Series B was co-led by Interlagos and Lowercarbon. Other backers include Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and General Catalyst.

Between the lines: This is American reindustrialization, plain and simple. It just might not be very sexy.

"Everyone wants to work on a rocket. Everyone wants to work on a missile. Everyone wants to work on the new electric vehicle," Black said.

"Nobody wants to work on the thing you'll never see when you drive down the street."