A start-up is opening what it says is central London's largest factory since the second world war as a resurgence of defence and AI investment drives a new wave of advanced manufacturing. Isembard's 160,000 sq ft four-floor factory and headquarters is on the site of a former council car pound in Southwark. Chief executive Alexander Fitzgerald said the facility would produce components for the likes of drones, rockets, robots, submarines and jet engines. Its customers include the US defence technology group Anduril, Babcock International and the UK government. It has 35 workers, with the total expected to reach 200 by the end of next year.

Opening up such a large factory in London will allow the two-year-old company to hire the machinists and other experts in fields such as AI and robotics engineering it requires, Fitzgerald told the FT. The site at Mandela Way — about the size of two football pitches — is about a mile from Tower Bridge and just off the A2 that connects London with the port of Dover. The site had been redeveloped by British Land to handle last-mile deliveries.

Isembard has previously raised more than $50mn from investors including the early Twitter backer Union Square Ventures, with a recent financing from existing investors valuing the group at roughly $500mn, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company plans to raise more funding to support its expansion plans. Named after the famed Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the company aims to disrupt fragmented component supply chains dominated by small businesses with a network of software-driven factories that work with critical industries.