Blue Water Emerges from Stealth

Blue Water Autonomy, a Boston-based startup developing autonomous ships for naval and commercial missions, has emerged from stealth with $14 million in seed funding.

Blue Water is a developer of autonomous, ocean-going ship platforms designed for extended naval and commercial maritime operations. The company is working to deliver a fully unmanned, highly producible ship platform tailored for the U.S. Navy, signaling a potential shift in how maritime operations are conducted at scale.

Blue Water’s primary product is a modular, fully unmanned surface vessel that incorporates a full-stack autonomy suite, including advanced artificial intelligence, sensor fusion, and mission payload integration. The product is engineered to support persistent presence, distributed sensing, and cost-efficient patrol in open-water environments.

Today the company’s core customer is the U.S. Navy, though future applications may include commercial shipping, offshore energy operations, and maritime leisure sectors. Boston-headquartered Blue Water was founded in 2024 by CEO Rylan Hamilton and other veterans of Amazon Robotics, iRobot, and the U.S. Navy.

Capital from the new round, backed by Eclipse, Riot Ventures, and Impatient Ventures, will be used to grow the company’s engineering team, accelerate testing programs, and advance development of its modular ship architecture.

Blue Water’s launch comes at a time of heightened geopolitical tension, as U.S. naval forces contend with strategic challenges in the Red Sea, Baltic, and Pacific regions. While U.S. warships have faced months of sustained operations, rival shipbuilding efforts—particularly from China—continue to outpace American production capacity. Blue Water’s autonomous ships are designed to augment existing fleets by offering scalable, cost-efficient platforms for extended maritime operations. Autonomous surface vessels are expected to play an increasingly important role alongside existing assets such as destroyers and submarines.

“Sea power has been the bedrock of America’s security and prosperity for centuries,” said Mr. Hamilton. “We believe the entire maritime economy is in need of transformation — it starts with supporting the U.S. Navy which needs dynamic industrial partners to bring top technology to its sailors, including ocean-going, fully autonomous ships.”

Blue Water’s unmanned platform aims to provide persistent presence, distributed sensing, and cost-effective patrol capabilities. The firm anticipates that once proven in defense settings, the same technologies could be adapted for commercial shipping, offshore energy, and maritime leisure sectors.

“The U.S. military needs more than incremental improvements to meet the moment and maintain its status on the global stage,” said Seth Winterroth, a 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. We previously backed Rylan at 6 River Systems and have seen first-hand his ability to scale a full stack technology company from concept to exit. 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.”

Founded in 2015 and based in Palo Alto, California, Eclipse is a U.S.-focused venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies that are modernizing physical industries. The firm manages approximately $4 billion in assets under management. Its investment focus includes sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, healthcare, energy, transportation, and industrial technology. As of 2023, Eclipse’s most recent fund, Eclipse Fund V LP, closed at $720 million.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Riot Ventures is a seed and growth-stage investment firm supporting companies transforming industrial systems. The firm typically invests up to $100 million per deal, with an average investment size around $17.6 million, and adopts a long-term partnership approach. Its latest fund, Riot Ventures Fund II LP, closed in 2021 at $90 million. The firm focuses on sectors such as intelligence, sensing & control, communication, mobility, security, defense, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing.

Founded in 2020 and based in New York City, Impatient Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on backing startups at the intersection of frontier technology and national resilience. Specific sectors of interest include defense, energy, infrastructure, and automation. Impatient typically leads pre-seed and seed rounds and is known for its support in helping teams navigate early technical and operational milestones.