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Revenue Gains & More Drive Fast-Growing OC50

In June 2017, Palmer Luckey, then 24, saw his new company Anduril Industries file to become incorporated with the state.

The defense technology company—which in state filings simply said it was a maker of “integrated hardware and software solutions”—initially had its headquarters at a nondescript office park in Irvine near John Wayne Airport.

“We are spending more than ever on defense technology, yet the pace of innovation has been slowing for decades,” Luckey said in a New York Times interview shortly after the company’s existence became known.

Five years and two headquarters moves later, Anduril’s anything but slow moving.

With several large contract wins to its name, a local employee base quickly approaching 1,000, and the largest new office campus Orange County’s seen in ages, Luckey’s firm, which makes AI-powered sentry towers, drones and other surveillance and defense products, is said to be seeking a new fundraise that national reports say will value the upstart firm around $7 billion.

The new headquarters give Anduril plenty of room to grow; well over 3,000 employees could eventually work at the campus.

What’s more, its location in OC gives it a decided advantage in attracting talent from across the county, compared to other tech markets like San Francisco and Silicon Valley, company officials said last week, while giving the Business Journal a tour of Anduril’s still-under-construction campus in Costa Mesa.

Job Creators

Anduril is among the fastest-growing companies in America, but there’s plenty more fast growers in Orange County, as this week’s iteration of the Business Journal’s annual OC50 listing shows.

This year’s OC50: The Fast 50 theme highlights 50 area companies and their executives—nearly 70 people in total—who are expanding rapidly by a variety of metrics, including revenue growth, area hiring, local development, and fundraising success.

More than 10,000 new local jobs are either currently being filled or expected to be filled in the not-too-distant-future, because of the work the Fast 50 are undertaking.

Keep a close eye on this week’s edition. The future’s coming fast, and these local businesses are leading the way.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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