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Rownd

YC W22

Raleigh, US · Founded 2022 · 9 employees · 20 known investors

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Rownd AI manufactures fully autonomous drones equipped with edge-based intelligence and satellite/cellular redundancy to remove operator dependency, currently deployed with U.S. Special Operations Command and commercial enterprises.

Also known as LlamaFarm · Rownd, LlamaFarm

Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningDefense TechRoboticsAutonomous DeliveryDronesOpen SourceAIUnited States of AmericaAmerica / CanadaPartly Remote

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W22)

Rownd was founded in 2022 by Robert Thelen, Matt Hamann, Rachel Orrino, and Matt H..

RTRobert Thelen
Robert ThelenCEO and Co-FounderPreviously, he held a product leadership role at IBM's API Connect, managing product development and strategy. He is an Air Force veteran with experience leading teams and overseeing government contracts, and holds an MBA from Dartmouth.
MHMatt Hamann
Matt HamannFounderMatt Hamann is co-founder and CTO of LlamaFarm with over a decade of experience building cloud applications at IBM. He holds a bachelor's degree in Information Systems Management from Bob Jones University and a master's degree in the same field from Carnegie Mellon University, and maintains the open-source nconf package.
RORachel Orrino
Rachel OrrinoCo-Founder, Head of DesignShe previously led user experience and design work at IBM on blockchain identity and SaaS products, combining B2B and B2C design experience.
MH
Matt H.Founder
BR
Bobby RadfordSoftware Engineer
RL
Racheal LenigSoftware Engineer
MM
Michael MurraySoftware Engineer
RR
Rachel RadulovichHead of Designformer

Investors · 20

Alumni Ventureslisted by Alumni VenturesManchester · $100K – $10M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · official-page verification 2026-10 · Not right? Tell us

Betaworkslisted by BetaworksNew York · $250K – $750K
Eight Capitallisted by Eight CapitalNorwalk

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · official-page verification 2026-10 · Not right? Tell us

Gaingelslisted by GaingelsNew York · $200K – $500K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · official-page verification 2026-10 · Not right? Tell us

LegalTechlisted by LegalTechFort Lauderdale

How we know: LegalTech's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Uncorrelated Ventureslisted by Uncorrelated VenturesLas Vegas

How we know: Uncorrelated Ventures's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Y Combinatorlisted by Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K

How we know: the Y Combinator directory · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

ACADEMY INVESTORreportedNew York

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Asymmetry VenturesreportedRichmond · $125K – $500K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Betaworks Ventures Management, LlcreportedNew York · $250K – $750K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Friends Family CapitalreportedSilicon Valley

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Hyperspace Capitalreported

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LLLPreportedGrand Forks

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Lupa SystemsreportedNew York

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Nomad Capital VCreported

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Plug and Play VenturesreportedSilicon Valley · $50K – $400K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Ride HomereportedLynnwood · $100K – $5M

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Strata Capital PartnersreportedSan Francisco

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Triangle TweenerreportedNorth Carolina · $7.5K

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Vast VenturesreportedFt. Lauderdale · $100K – $1M

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Related companies · 5

OrchestraUnderstudy Labs offers an open-source toolkit that captures traces from LLM production workflows, benchmarks and A/B tests cheaper or open-weight models against them, and fine-tunes and deploys specialist models that users own and can host anywhere. It is aimed at developers and teams looking to migrate from proprietary LLMs to models they control.
PipeshiftPipeshift provides managed inference infrastructure for deploying and scaling AI models with low latency and high reliability. The platform serves developers and teams building real-time AI agents, offering dedicated GPU clusters, custom SLA management, and model optimization tools.
Cair HealthCair Health provides agentic automation software for revenue cycle management (RCM) in healthcare, helping billing teams process claims and documentation faster and more accurately.
CartpoleCartpole develops simulation environments designed to train advanced machine learning models using reinforcement learning techniques.
RunLocal AIRunLocal provides a platform that helps teams optimize AI model inference for edge devices like Nvidia Orin and Qualcomm hardware using AI-powered coding agents. The service reduces model latency, decreases engineering time, and enables faster deployment without requiring specialized optimization experts.

Companies working in the same space as Rownd.

Non-dilutive funding · 4 SBIR/STTR awards

Federal grants — no equity taken
AgencyPhaseYearAmount
U.S. Air ForceAir ForcePhase II2023$1.2M
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)National Institute of Standards and TechnologyPhase I2023$96.6K
U.S. Air ForceAir ForcePhase II2022$908.5K
U.S. Air ForceAir ForcePhase I2021$39.2K

Source: SBIR.gov award data (U.S. Small Business Administration). SBIR/STTR awards are competitive federal R&D grants and contracts — non-dilutive capital alongside any venture rounds above.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure
Rownd, Inc.

Frequently asked questions

What does Rownd do?
Rownd AI manufactures fully autonomous drones equipped with edge-based intelligence and satellite/cellular redundancy to remove operator dependency, currently deployed with U.S. Special Operations Command and commercial enterprises.
Who founded Rownd?
Rownd was founded by Robert Thelen, Matt Hamann, Rachel Orrino, Matt H. in 2022.
Who are Rownd's investors?
Rownd's investors include Alumni Ventures, Betaworks, Eight Capital, Gaingels, LegalTech, Uncorrelated Ventures, Y Combinator, ACADEMY INVESTOR and 12 more.
Where is Rownd headquartered?
Rownd is headquartered in Raleigh, US.