Manufacturer of autonomous surface vessels Saronic secured $175 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation, led by Andreessen Horowitz — making the defense tech startup the latest “unicorn” in a growing sector.
Other investors also participated in the round: 8VC 1, Caffeine Capital, You live in Gil AND Night Dragon.
The Austin, Texas-based startup designs and manufactures autonomous ground vehicles — essentially drones for Our Navy that move on the surface of water. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $245 million, in response to Crunchbase.
“We are creating a completely new capability for the maritime sector that delivers sea power without the cost and delays associated with a shipyard,” said the CEO Dino Mavrookas In release“Because the future of naval warfare will be a combination of manned and unmanned systems, we must build solutions that integrate easily with existing fleets and can be manufactured at scale to meet any emerging threat.”
Defense technology is feeling the pressure
Saronic’s latest round comes just a week after Germany’s Helsingwhich develops artificial intelligence software for defense purposes, has raised roughly $489 million in funding, led by General Catalyst which valued the company at $5.4 billion. The startup designs software that helps increase the weapon capabilities of drones and fighter jets and improves decision-making on the battlefield.
New rounds bring global defense tech investment to greater than $1 billion this yr, in response to Crunchbase data.
However, this is still a slower pace than last yr, when funding for the full yr of 2023 got here to almost $2 billion.
However, as we have said in the past, all it takes is one major fundraising event in this sector to get back to last yr’s pace.