So far, seven defense-tech startups — SpaceX, Anduril, Helsing, Shield AI, Saronic, Epirus, and Hadrian — have raised $500 million in VC cash or more. You might call the group “the Capital Cannons Club.” Here at Newcomer, we’ll be doing more coverage of these heavily-funded defense-tech companies, whose businesses depend on obtaining long-term engagements and whose progress therefore can be hard to assess.
First up is Saronic, which raised a $600 million Series C in February, catapulting its valuation to approximately $4 billion and funding its flagship “Port Alpha” autonomous shipyard initiative in San Diego. We’ve got a fundraising deck that Saronic used to make its case last year. (Paid subscribers can see the newsworthy slides below.)
Saronic builds “autonomous surface vessels,” or put more simply, drone boats, along with the software to pilot them. It has six models that range from 6-foot skiffs to 150-foot small ships, which can be used for a variety of surveillance, intelligence-collection, and combat purposes. The smaller boats can be outfitted with missile launchers, and the larger boats can be configured for torpedoes.
Saronic has raised just under $850 million in VC funding to date, making it the fifth most capitalized defense-tech startup.
So far, Saronic has secured several one-off contracts from the military that provide funding for early prototyping and testing but are not permanent revenue streams. The real prize would be a big, ongoing procurement contract, known in industry lingo as a “program of record.”
We got our hands on a copy of Saronic’s May 2024 pitch deck to investors for its Series B funding round. Link below to see the pitch.
