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A defense startup most people have never heard of just opened a 105,000-square-foot missile factory in Dallas, Texas. Covenant, founded by Israeli-American entrepreneur Michael Kaufman, chose September 9 to both exit stealth mode and cut the ribbon on a manufacturing plant designed to churn out cruise missiles at a pace that would make traditional defense contractors uncomfortable.
The company has raised over $250 million across three funding rounds, with Andreessen Horowitz and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund leading the charge.
The Anthem missile and why it matters
Covenant’s flagship product is called Anthem, a long-range, heavy-payload cruise missile engineered to be cheaper and faster to produce than legacy systems like the Tomahawk. The target price sits in the mid-six-figure range per unit at full-rate production.
Covenant has already completed over 200 test flights of the Anthem since its maiden flight in August 2025.
The Dallas plant is targeting production of 1,000 Anthem missiles in its first year, with plans to scale to 5,000 units annually. Serial production is slated to begin in Q1 2027, with initial revenue expected to flow that same year.
The money and the contracts
Covenant has booked approximately $150 million in contracts spanning qualification, research and development, and production. The company has secured agreements with the US Department of Defense for testing and qualification of the Anthem, including adaptations for Navy use.
Both the Army and Navy are apparently interested, which tells you something about the Pentagon’s appetite for alternatives to the usual suspects in the defense industrial base.
The startup now employs over 200 people across facilities in the US, Germany, and Northern Israel.
Kaufman, the CEO and founder, previously worked at Thiel Capital and has a background as a venture investor.
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