Saronic Latest Defense Tech Startup To Hit Unicorn Status

Chris Metinko

Autonomous surface vessels maker Saronic locked up a $175 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz — minting the defense tech startup as the newest unicorn in the growing sector.

Other investors participating in the round include 8VC 1, Caffeinated Capital, Elad Gil and NightDragon.

The Austin, Texas-based startup designs and manufactures autonomous surface vehicles — basically drones for the U.S. Navy that move along the water surface. Founded in 2022, the company has raised $245 million, per Crunchbase.

“We are creating an entirely new capability for the maritime domain, one that delivers naval power without the costs and delays of a shipyard,” said CEO Dino Mavrookas in a release. “As the future of naval warfare will rely on manned and unmanned teaming, we must build solutions that easily integrate into the existing fleet and can be produced at scale to meet any emerging threat.”

Defense tech feels the heat

Saronic’s new round comes just about a week after Germany-based Helsing, which develops artificial intelligence software for defense, raised approximately $489 million in funding led by General Catalyst that valued the company at $5.4 billion. The startup designs software that helps boost weapons capabilities in drones and jet fighters, and improves battlefield decision-making.

With the new rounds, global venture dollars in defense tech so far this year has now passed $1 billion, per Crunchbase data.

That is still behind last year’s pace, when such funding hit nearly $2 billion for all of 2023.

However, as we have said in the past, it only takes one big fundraise in this sector to get back to last year’s pace.