Autonomous shipmaker Saronic valued at $9.25 billion in latest funding round

March 31 (Reuters) - Saronic Technologies said on Tuesday it had raised $1.75 billion in a late-stage funding round led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, more than doubling the valuation of the maker of autonomous ships in just over a year.

The defense company has drawn big-name investors as governments ramp up spending and seek to secure supply chains and maritime trade routes amid rising geopolitical tensions.

Other marquee investors in the Series D round that valued the company at $9.25 billion included Advent International, Bessemer Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Franklin Templeton.

Dino Mavrookas, co-founder and CEO of Saronic, said that U.S. shipbuilding ability has steadily declined over decades and that the company is tackling this challenge with a new model to deliver autonomous vessels.

"The new capital will accelerate Saronic's ability to bring that model to life, generate entirely new classes of autonomous ships and maritime capabilities, and scale U.S. shipbuilding capacity on a timeline not seen since World War II," he said.

The latest round more than doubles Saronic's valuation from its February 2025 fundraise, when it raised $600 million at a $4 billion valuation.

Saronic said the new capital will also go towards finding solutions to the full spectrum of challenges in the maritime domain, including those at the intersection of surface and subsurface.

The funding underscores how venture firms are growing more comfortable writing large checks for industries tied to defense and national security. Even companies in the broader orbit of the sector have benefited from strong investor appetite.

Global corporate investor participation in defense tech VC deals reached an all-time high last year, a January report by PitchBook showed.