Blue Water Autonomy, a technology company building autonomous ships for the US Navy, has announced $14 million in seed funding from Eclipse, Riot, and Impatient Ventures.
The company said it is building a completely unmanned and "highly producible" ship that can serve many missions on the open ocean.
"Founded in 2024 by leaders formerly of Amazon Robotics, iRobot, and the US Navy, Blue Water Autonomy has developed a full-stack autonomy suite, commenced salt-water testing, and developed concept ship designs in under a year," said Blue Water.
"With this seed funding, the company will expand its engineering team, accelerate ship testing, and integrate different payloads onto its platform."
The US Navy will soon operate autonomous warships alongside crewed destroyers, submarines, and aircraft carriers.
"The US military needs more than incremental improvements to meet the moment and maintain its status on the global stage," said Seth Winterroth, Partner at Eclipse.
"Autonomous ships are critical to enable the navy to continue securing deterrence given the threat of China and Russia and the importance of shipping lanes in the Pacific.
"No other company is tackling this problem at the ship level like Blue Water. The team is a rare combination of roboticists and Navy veterans that positions them to be a critical partner to the navy, the entire Department of Defense, and will have a major impact on the maritime industry."