Drone ship builder Saronic valuation more than doubles to $9 billion after funding round
By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - Saronic Technologies said on Tuesday it closed a $1.75 billion funding round, more than doubling the value of the autonomous shipbuilding startup to $9.25 billion, as investor appetite for defense technology companies continues to surge.
The value of defense tech firms has shot higher in the last year as the administration of President Donald Trump promises to shift funding their way in hopes of getting the most sophisticated technology to warfighters at a lower cost and in a fraction of the time it takes the biggest contractors to deliver similar products.
Saronic raised $600 million in February 2025 at a $4 billion valuation, and Pentagon darling Anduril Industries, a drone and software maker, hopes to double its valuation to $60 billion when its latest round closes.
In comparison, Huntington Ingalls HII.N, the U.S. military's biggest shipbuilder, is currently valued at $15 billion and employs 44,000 workers.
In December, the Navy announced Saronic's $392 million production contract for its 24-foot (7.3 m) Corsair vessel, which the company's Austin facility can now produce at a rate of several thousand per year.
Saronic plans to expand its vessel family from the Corsair up to the 180-foot Marauder and beyond, and will explore further surface and undersea products.
After its last fundraising, Saronic bought a shipyard in Franklin, Louisiana where it builds the Marauder. Saronic said it will use the fresh capital to expand existing production facilities in Louisiana, Texas and beyond. The company is also working on a shipyard-of-the-future project called "Port Alpha".
The round was led by Kleiner Perkins and brings in a raft of new backers including Advent International, Bessemer Venture Partners, DFJ Growth, and BAM Elevate, alongside existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, 8VC, Caffeinated Capital, Elad Gil, and Franklin Templeton.
Saronic said its headcount has surpassed 1,300.
