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.
