Blue Water Autonomy, a startup focused on building fully autonomous ships for the U.S. Navy, has officially emerged from stealth with a $14 million seed round led by Eclipse, Riot Ventures, and Impatient Ventures. The company aims to redefine the future of maritime defense through completely unmanned and mass-producible vessels designed for multi-mission use in open-ocean environments.
Founded in 2024 by veterans of Amazon Robotics, iRobot, and the U.S. Navy, Blue Water Autonomy has moved quickly from concept to real-world testing. In less than a year, the team has built a full-stack autonomy platform. Started saltwater testing, and developed multiple concept ship designs.
With the new funding, the company plans to expand its engineering team, accelerate testing at sea. And integrate various defense and commercial payloads onto its modular platform.
A Full-Stack Autonomy Suite for the Open Ocean
Blue Water Autonomy’s vision centers on developing a scalable. Autonomous surface ship capable of supporting a wide range of missions without requiring onboard crew. This includes surveillance, reconnaissance, logistics, and more complex defense operations. By leveraging their expertise in robotics, autonomy, and naval systems. The founding team has created an end-to-end autonomy stack specifically built for uncrewed maritime operations.
Unlike conventional vessels retrofitted with automation tools. Blue Water Autonomy’s ships are designed from the ground up for unmanned operation, reducing complexity and cost while enhancing operational flexibility. The company believes this design-first approach makes it easier to deploy fleets at scale, adapt to mission changes, and support long-duration open-sea assignments.
Blue Water is Positioned at the Intersection of Defense and Robotics
The seed round signals strong investor interest in next-generation naval defense technologies. With its team’s deep background in robotics, systems engineering, and military operations, Blue Water Autonomy sits at the intersection of AI, autonomy, and national security—a sector experiencing rapid growth as global navies look for new ways to enhance fleet capabilities without increasing manpower.
As the defense sector shifts toward smaller, more distributed, and autonomous systems, startups like Blue Water Autonomy are well-positioned to lead the transition. Their ability to rapidly develop and test autonomous solutions in real-world conditions will be a key differentiator in meeting U.S. Navy modernization goals.
