Autonomous shipbuilder Saronic valued at $4b after $600m fundraising round

Saronic Technologies said on Tuesday it has closed a $600 million Series C funding round, led by investor Elad Gil, which valued the autonomous shipbuilding company at $4 billion.

The company said it would use the funds to build a new shipyard, called Port Alpha, to expand its autonomous surface vessel fleet into medium and large-class ships for United States defense applications.

It would also use the proceeds to develop hybrid fleets for the US Navy by integrating a significant number of unmanned systems and manned platforms.

"With this raise, we will invest into the US shipbuilding infrastructure and work with federal and state legislators to establish public-private partnerships," Saronic said.

The company received the backing of a new investor, General Catalyst in the latest funding round. Its existing investors include a16z, Caffeinated Capital and Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale's 8VC.

Venture firms are growing more comfortable with signing big checks as a recovery in dealmaking and initial public offerings, spurred by interest rate cuts, provides them with greater opportunities to exit their investments.

Global venture capital dealmaking activity rose more than five per cent to $368.5 billion last year, according to a report by PitchBook.

In December, the Financial Times reported that Saronic is expected to be part of a proposed consortium, which may also include data analytics firm Palantir and defense tech company Anduril Industries, to jointly bid for US government work and supply cutting-edge defense and weapons capabilities.

(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)