Vatn Systems just pulled in a $60M Series A, and the ripple feels like a pressure wave announcing who now owns the deep. You do not raise that kind of capital unless the market sees something undeniable, and Vatn Systems has spent the past 2 years proving they are not playing in the AUV space. They are shaping it. Watching Nelson Mills take this company from idea to TRL 7 in roughly 15 months is the kind of disciplined velocity that makes seasoned investors rethink their own timelines. Add the engineering firepower of Geoff Manchester, the maritime precision of Freddie Mills, and the operational clarity of Dan Hendrix, and suddenly the underwater domain has a new center of gravity.
What sets Vatn Systems apart is not just the tech. It is the manufacturing math that makes competitors uncomfortable. A facility capable of producing 2,000+ AUVs per year is not a flex. It is a declaration. While most of the industry is celebrating triple digits, Vatn Systems is scaling like a company that understands defense needs throughput, not prototypes. With Brendan Smith bringing Boston Dynamics production lineage into a Bristol plant wired through Palantir’s digital backbone, the company is treating underwater autonomy the way modern tech treats compute. Build fast. Build reliably. Build so the rest of the industry has to ask how you did it.
The Skelmir S12 is where this philosophy goes from impressive to disruptive. A 12.75 inch platform that moves like an AUV and hits like a lightweight torpedo is already enough to get attention, but pair it with INStinct, their proprietary navigation system built on ANELLO Photonics SiPhOG-based IMU tech, and suddenly GPS denial stops being a constraint. The ocean becomes navigable without satellites, comms, or hand-holding. When your vehicles swarm intelligently, carry 200 lb payloads, exceed 200 nm in AUV mode, and push past 30 knots in torpedo config, you stop being a vendor and start becoming a strategic dependency.
This $60M round, led by Bravo Victor Venture Capital with heavy hitters like Hanwha, Geodesic Capital, Airbus Ventures, Dauntless Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, Veteran Ventures Capital, DYNE Ventures, Propeller Ventures, Decisive Point Ventures, SAIC Ventures, Centre Street Partners, Cubit Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, signals something bigger than momentum. It signals that the market sees Vatn Systems not as an emerging player but as the largest AUV manufacturer in the US and a future underwater prime in a sector projected to grow 14.5% annually to nearly $20B by 2034.
Startups Startup Funding Venture Capital Series A AUV Defense Defense Tech Security Deep Tech Technology Innovation Tech Ecosystem Startup Ecosystem
