The US builds less than 1% of the world’s commercial ships, according to CSIS. Saronic wants to change that by building a new, software-driven model of American shipbuilding around autonomous vessels and the factories that produce them.
Earlier this week, the Austin-based maritime autonomy company closed a $1.75 billion Series D led by Kleiner Perkins at a $9.25 billion valuation, according to a Reuters report.
New investors include Advent International, Bessemer Venture Partners, DFJ Growth, and BAM Elevate, with existing backers 8VC, Caffeinated Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Elad Gil, and Franklin Templeton also participating.
The capital will flow into three core areas: Port Alpha, Saronic’s planned next-generation shipyard, the expansion of existing facilities in Louisiana and Texas, and the scaling of its autonomous vessel portfolio. The lineup spans from the 24-foot Corsair to the 180-foot Marauder, the first hull of which was completed in under six months.
Founded in 2020 by Dino Mavrookas, Rob Lehman, Vibhav Altekar and Doug Lambert, Saronic operates across both defence and commercial maritime markets. The company is developing unmanned surface vessels that integrate hardware, software, and AI into a single, scalable platform for maritime security, domain awareness, and persistent operations at sea.
Unlike Anduril Industries, Textron Systems, and L3Harris, Saronic’s pitch owns the vessel design and the shipyard, rather than relying on legacy manufacturers to produce at scale.
The raise follows a $600 million Series C at a $4 billion valuation, a $392 million US Navy production contract, international launches in the UK and Australia, and headcount growth to more than 1,300.
