Hybron Named a Winner of ACMI's $3 Million Horizon Manufacturing Cup

Hybron, a Veteran Ventures Capital Fund II portfolio company based in El Segundo, California, was named on October 20 one of five winners of the inaugural Horizon Manufacturing Cup, a one-day fast-pitch competition held by the American Center for Manufacturing and Innovation (ACMI) on Indiana University's Bloomington campus. ACMI awarded a total of $3 million in non-dilutive funding to the five companies. Raven Space Systems took the $1 million grand prize, and Hybron, Supernova, Standard Bots and Glīd were the other four awardees.

ACMI describes Hybron as a company whose proprietary manufacturing technology enables rapid, scalable production of lightweight, high-strength composite components for defense, aerospace and energy. In its own account of the award, Hybron said traditional composite manufacturing, which depends on expensive machines and manual labor, is a bottleneck for the defense industrial base, and that its process produces composite products at 10 to 100 times the speed of traditional lay-ups.

Twelve startups working across additive manufacturing, robotics, optics, logistics, materials science, aerospace and space systems pitched to a panel of judges from the defense and industrial sectors, including representatives of NDIA, ACMI Federal, NAVSEA and Booz Allen Hamilton, after a selection process that began with more than 70 applications. Judges scored each company on technical merit, innovation, product readiness and impact.

Beyond the funding, the five winners will join ACMI's National Security Industrial Hub and Munitions Campus as tenants. The campus is a 1,500-plus-acre manufacturing ecosystem adjacent to Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane and Crane Army Ammunition Activity in southern Indiana, and ACMI says the companies gain access to prototyping equipment, industrial infrastructure, technical resources, supply chains, scaling space and talent networks as they move from prototype into production. Ken Rothaermel, CEO of ACMI Federal, called the competitors companies "building something the American industrial base needs right now."

Veteran Ventures Capital invested in Hybron through Fund II.

VVC's view: non-dilutive money is welcome, but the part of this award we would underline is the address. A tenancy next to NSWC Crane and Crane Army Ammunition Activity puts Hybron's composite production where naval and munitions programs are built and tested, and ACMI's equipment and supply-chain support shorten the path from a proven process to parts inside a program of record. That is the step a manufacturing company has to take before anyone counts its capacity, and Hybron has taken it on a judged stage against eleven other companies.

Sources: ACMI via PR Newswire — Winners of the $3 Million Inaugural Horizon Manufacturing Cup, October 22, 2026; ACMI — Official Horizon Manufacturing Cup winner announcement; ACMI — Horizon Manufacturing Cup competition dates and award schedule; Hybron — LinkedIn award announcement, October 26, 2026; Inside INdiana Business — ACMI names winners of inaugural Horizon Manufacturing Cup at IU, October 22, 2026; Veteran Ventures Capital — Hybron Technologies Fund II investment announcement, April 6, 2026.