- REGENT has raised $240 million in its Series B round, with half of the funds provided as debt by Palmer Luckey’s Erebor Bank.
- The funding round takes place right before the Viceroy seaglider makes its first full airborne flight.
- This round takes REGENT’s total funding to $340 million as the company directs more of its focus towards defence.
REGENT Craft has raised $ 240 million in its Series B round, with the funds split equally between equity and debt, and Mare Liberum and AE Ventures serving as co-lead investors. Erebor Bank, co-founded by Palmer Luckey, provides half of the debt.
DCVC has now joined this funding round alongside previous investors such as Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Japan Airlines, and Giant Step Capital. The last funding round the company disclosed was a $60 million Series A in 2023, with Mark Cuban as an investor. Since then, REGENT has grown from about 100 employees to a larger team, the size of which is unknown.
This brings total funding to $340 million and comes just before two major milestones, namely, the first fully aerial human flight of the Viceroy Seaglider and the opening of a new manufacturing plant.
“This investment marks a critical inflection point for REGENT as we move from development into production. We have built significant momentum across both our defense and commercial pipelines, and this funding enables us to scale manufacturing, execute key certification milestones, and deliver Seagliders to customers,” said Billy Thalheimer, co-founder and CEO of REGENT Craft.
Two engineers left Boeing to build a flying boat
Thalheimer and Mike Klinker were freshmen together in an aerospace engineering class at MIT. He then worked for Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic before joining Aurora Flight Sciences, where he led flight physics for Boeing’s electric air taxi project until Boeing took over the company.
Klinker, on the other hand, was responsible for developing control software for autonomous vehicles at both the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Aurora Flight Sciences.
In 2020, both of them left their jobs in the aerospace sector to found REGENT, believing that by avoiding aviation regulators they could certify an electric aircraft more quickly.
The Seaglider is based on this concept: it functions as a boat when at the dock, employs retractable hydrofoils to navigate rough water, and then flies just above the water at speeds of up to 180 mph.
Because it does not enter controlled airspace, it is covered by maritime law rather than aviation regulations. This enables REGENT to avoid the lengthy approval procedures that companies in the electric aviation sector such as Joby and Archer have to go through.
The company is now located in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, having moved from the Boston area in order to take advantage of the state’s coastal testing sites and its expertise in maritime composites.
From coastal ferries to a defence contractor
Originally, REGENT sought to provide a quicker and less expensive option than short-haul ferries and regional flights and already has more than $9 billion in pre-orders from airlines and ferry operators on six continents. This focus on commercial operations is still going ahead.
The company is also reinforcing its partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Strategic Development Fund, which is owned by the EDGE Group, for the Seaglider’s operations and manufacturing in the UAE.
Nevertheless, the majority of its new growth is coming from the defence sector. REGENT has extended its contract with the US Marine Corps for the Viceroy platform, now valued at $15 million; developed an autonomous military version known as Squire; and established a dedicated REGENT Defence unit to assist the Department of War with its maritime activities.
New agreements with Poland’s Balnord for operations in the Baltic Sea and with Greece’s iGrow for the Aegean are broadening REGENT’s defence and commercial reach in Europe.
The main competitors of REGENT include the Swedish companies Candela and X Shore, which produce smaller electric hydrofoils, and the Chinese company Navee, which introduced its personal wing-in-ground-effect vehicle, the WaveFly 5X, in June 2026.
These companies are not, however, pursuing military contracts on the same scale as REGENT, which means that REGENT is in direct competition with specialised maritime defence start-ups such as Britain’s Kraken Technology Group, which secured $175 million in a Series B financing round in July 2026 and has a valuation in excess of $1 billion.
In 2025, venture investment in defence technology reached a record high of $49.1 billion, the majority of that amount going to the United States. The American defence contractor Shield AI raised $240 million at a $5.3 billion valuation, and European funds such as AVP and Earlybird’s €500 million E2D fund is aiming to close the funding gap with the US.
“As maritime defence priorities evolve, operators need new capabilities that deliver greater speed, reach, and flexibility. REGENT is a leader in this emerging category with a strong track record of technical development and growing engagement with defence customers. By combining our expertise in maritime technology and national security with REGENT’s innovative leadership and proven ability to deliver, we are well positioned to accelerate the next phase of Seaglider technology and its adoption across the defence market,” said Admiral Lorin Selby, general partner at Mare Liberum, which has backed REGENT across multiple prior rounds.
“REGENT is addressing a critical gap in maritime defense operations, and the progress made since the establishment of REGENT Defense — including the first flight of Squire and the completion of its manufacturing facility — positions the business for its next phase of growth,” added Brian Schettler, partner and head of AE Ventures, the venture arm of AE Industrial Partners, which manages $9.4 billion in assets.
What’s next
The funding will enable REGENT to increase manufacturing at its recently completed 255,000-square-foot facility in Rhode Island and will also assist with the certification work prior to the Viceroy’s first full flight.
REGENT has now raised almost four times the amount it raised in its Series A, primarily as a result of having contracts and a completed factory rather than having carried out a flight.
Whether this approach works will ultimately be determined by the results of the first fully loaded Viceroy flight.
