Irish-founded Ulysses raises $46m in rounds featuring A16Z

The San Francisco-based start-up is building networked autonomous vehicles that operate above and below the surface of the ocean, ‘Earth’s last frontier’.

Ulysses, founded in Dublin in 2023 by Akhil Voorakkara, Will O’Brien, Jamie Wedderburn and Colm O’Brien – who say they are united by a shared belief “that the ocean is the planet’s most strategic and underserved domain” – will use newly acquired funding to build “the Ocean company”.

A $38m Series A round was led by Andreesen Horowitz (A16Z), while the San Francisco-based Ulysses also announced an $8m seed round led by Pebblebed, bringing total new funding to $46m. Other investors included Booz Allen Hamilton, Harpoon and Genius Ventures, while existing investors Lowercarbon Capital, ReGen Ventures and Superorganism have also followed with further investment.

“The founders, Akhil, Will, Colm and Jamie, came to this country and created something we had been struggling to produce: a small, autonomous underwater vehicle that aims to outperform the primes at a fraction of the cost,” a statement from A16Z said. “We’re excited to partner with the Ulysses team for their Series A.”

Will O’Brien, in a LinkedIn post, said: “We are building The Ocean Company. The ocean is 71pc of the planet. But it is less explored than Mars, and full of secrets, waiting to be told. It is the backbone of global defence. Home to the critical infrastructure that powers our world. And the key to the health of our planet. This frontier needs technology to protect and steward it. We are building it.”

Ulysses describes its mission as “building the operating system for the ocean: massive, networked fleets of low-cost, autonomous vehicles that operate above and below the surface”, using hardware “trusted to function in the harshest maritime environments  – whether restoring seagrass meadows, securing critical infrastructure or conducting persistent [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] in contested waters”.

Players like the US Navy have recognised the potential and come calling. Ulysses is now actively recruiting for engineers and scientists at their San Francisco base.

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