Saronic

Saronic Technologies is an Austin, Texas-based defense technology company that designs and manufactures autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) combining hardware, software and artificial intelligence for maritime missions. Its publicly described fleet spans the 24-foot Corsair (1,000+ nm range, 35+ knot top speed, 1,000 lb payload), the 52-foot Mirage (2,500+ nm range, 35+ knots, 3,500 lb payload) and the 180-foot Marauder, a logistics and payload-delivery platform with a 5,400 nm range at base load (25 MT), 4,100 nm at maximum load, a 12-knot cruise and 25+ knot sprint speed, and up to 150 metric tons of modular payload carried in four 40-foot or eight 20-foot ISO containers. The company has also unveiled vessels named Cipher and, per press coverage, Spyglass and Cutlass, with CNBC reporting six ASV iterations in total.

Saronic positions its platforms as dual-use across defense and commercial applications and emphasizes durability, modular payload integration, resilient multichannel communications for manned-unmanned teaming, and attritable production at scale. Its software stack includes mission-level autonomy with cross-platform data fusion, a browser-based mission control interface, adaptive path planning and digital-twin simulation; Echelon is its unified command-and-control layer for planning, simulating and operating a single vessel or a fleet. The company states its vessels are engineered for 15g+ shock loads and have accumulated more than 100,000 nautical miles in real-world conditions.

Alongside vessel development, Saronic is building industrial capacity: it acquired and is expanding a shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana with a $300 million, 300,000 sq. ft. expansion expected to create 1,500 jobs, expanded its Austin headquarters to more than 500,000 sq. ft., and is developing Port Alpha, a next-generation shipyard selected for Brownsville, Texas.

Founding story

The company was founded by a team of veterans and technologists. CEO Dino Mavrookas served eleven years as a Navy SEAL with eight combat tours before working in technology private equity at Vista Equity Partners; CTO Vibhav Altekar was one of the earliest engineers at Anduril, where he worked on programs including the Royal Australian Navy's Ghost Shark; COO Doug Lambert previously led engineering at Liquid Robotics and was VP Engineering at Terradepth; CCO Rob Lehman spent 22 years in the Marine Corps and held roles at Northrop Grumman, ManTech International, TTI and 9 Line Solutions.

Business model

Saronic develops, manufactures and sells autonomous surface vessels and accompanying autonomy and command-and-control software, supported by in-house shipbuilding capacity. Revenue sources described in sources include U.S. government production programs, such as a $392 million U.S. Navy production contract, as well as commercial maritime work.

Sales of autonomous surface vessels and associated autonomy/command-and-control software to defense and commercial customers, including government production contracts such as the $392 million U.S. Navy award.

Traction

As of the March 2026 Series D announcement, headcount surpassed 1,300, the company had a $392 million U.S. Navy production contract, and it completed the first 180-foot Marauder hull in under six months and less than eight months after acquiring the facility to build it. Vessels have logged more than 100,000 nautical miles in real-world conditions. Saronic plans to build more than 20 ships per year by 2027 and says it is on pace to quintuple production at its Franklin, Louisiana shipyard over the following 12 months. A Corsair vessel conducted what the company describes as the first known at-sea rescue by an autonomous boat, recovering downed pilots in the Strait of Hormuz.

Latest developments

In March 2026 Saronic closed a $1.75 billion Series D led by Kleiner Perkins at a $9.25 billion valuation, with Advent International, Bessemer Venture Partners, DFJ Growth and BAM Elevate joining and existing investors 8VC, Caffeinated Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Elad Gil and Franklin Templeton continuing. Recent announcements include selecting Brownsville, Texas for Port Alpha, expansion to the Port of Gulfport, Mississippi for Marauder on-water testing, a partnership with Samsung Heavy Industries, Mirage entering the water, selection for the U.S. Navy MUSV marketplace, a planned maritime hypersonic launch demonstration with Castelion, and partnerships with Lloyd's Register, ABS, NVIDIA, Path Robotics and Palantir.