Tech
Overland AI raises $100M to meet military demand for autonomous ground vehicles
Seattle-based Overland AI raised $100 million to meet demand for its autonomous ground vehicles used by the U.S. military.
8VC led the round, which comes a year after the company raised $42 million. Other backers include Point72 Ventures, Ascend, Shasta Ventures, and Overmatch Ventures, as well as new supporters Valor Equity Partners, StepStone Group and TriplePoint Capital.
GeekWire first covered the company in 2022 when it was a small, stealthy group of researchers spinning out of the University of Washington. Overland has grown to more than 100 employees and raised more than $140 million since then.
The company has various military-related partnerships, including a recent $2 million contract with the U.S. Army. Overland’s technology enables a human operator to control multiple robotic vehicles navigating off-road terrain, including in environments with no GPS. The tech can be installed on any vehicle and is designed to navigate around various conditions at different speeds.
The goal is to deliver autonomous maneuverability across complex off-road, GPS-denied environments at tactically relevant speeds, especially for dangerous “breaching missions” in ground combat operations. Autonomy can remove combat engineers from locations such as a minefield, wire, or barrier where a force is attempting to create a lane for passage.
Overland AI is working closely with the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and SOCOM, including the 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Cavalry Division, 173rd Airborne Brigade, 36th Engineer Brigade, and 2nd Marine Logistics Group.
The company said the new funding will help meet rapidly growing demand for ULTRA, its own autonomous tactical vehicle designed for military use that debuted last year.
“Demand for ground autonomy has moved decisively from experimentation to operational integration,” said Stephanie Bonk, co-founder and president of Overland AI, in a news release Tuesday. “This funding allows us to scale alongside the units adopting our technology.”
Overland completed the DARPA RACER program (Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency) last November after three years testing and iterating its platform autonomy.
Last month Overland announced a partnership with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), which is testing the use of Overland’s technology for wildfire response. CAL FIRE used two of Overland’s self-driving 4-wheelers for resupply (food, water, battery delivery) and wildfire logistics missions at Camp Pendleton in Southern California.
Last year the startup opened a 22,000 square-foot production facility in Seattle.
The company is led by Bonk and CEO Byron Boots, a robotics researcher who leads the UW’s Robot Learning Laboratory and is the Amazon Professor of Machine Learning at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering.
Overland is ranked No. 14 on the GeekWire 200, our list of top privately held startups across the Pacific Northwest.