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- Scheduled Shipment #88
Scheduled Shipment #88
Greg Brainard
September 19, 2025
Happy Friday.
Maritime innovation is accelerating. Blue Water Autonomy raised $50 million three weeks ago to build autonomous ships. Valstad is bringing shipbuilding back to the US. Ulysses is using autonomous underwater vehicles to plant seagrass. And this week, Arc secured a $160 million contract to supply hybrid electric tugboats. The company is selling their boats for $20 million a pop and expects them to hit the waters of the Los Angeles port in 2027.
$2.4 million raised across 17 startups.
Let’s dig in.
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Top News
Arc, the electric boat maker, receives first customer order for $160 million after raising $100 million.
Waymo approved to test autonomous vehicles at SFO.
Tariff ceasefire powers Long Beach container surge.
Timeline
𝗪𝗲’𝘃𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗝𝗲𝘁𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆!
Palmer Luckey — tech visionary from California — completed ground training in under 50 minutes before confidently taking the controls for his first low-altitude flights. A
— JetsonAero (@jetson_aero)
1:03 PM • Sep 8, 2025
Meet HMND 01 Alpha — UK’s first humanoid robot for industrial use.
Built in just 7 months, it’s the fastest-developed humanoid in history.
220 cm | 7.2 km/h | 15 kg payload | 29 active DOF, excluding end-effectors | AI-driven end-to-end reasoning
The journey has just begun.
— Humanoid (@TheHumanoidAI)
2:30 PM • Sep 18, 2025
Massive Fundings
Figure AI, a 3-year-old Sunnyvale, CA startup that develops humanoid robots, raised a $1.0 billion Series C led by Parkway Venture Capital with participation from Brookfield Asset Management, NVIDIA, Macquarie Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, Tamarack Global, LG Technology Ventures, Salesforce, T-Mobile Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures. More here.
Groq, a 9-year-old Mountain View, CA startup that produces AI chips, raised a $750.0 million financing led by Disruptive with participation from BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, Samsung, Cisco, D1, and Altimeter. More here.
Divergent Technologies, Inc., an 11-year-old Torrance, California startup that provides an end-to-end digital manufacturing platform, raised a $290.0 million Series E led by Rochefort Asset Management. More here.
Dyna Robotics, a 1-year-old Redwood City, CA startup that develops AI-powered robotics, raised a $120.0 million Series A led by RoboStrategy, CRV, and First Round Capital with participation from Salesforce Ventures, NVentures, the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Samsung Next, and LG Technology Ventures. More here.
Augment, a 2025-founded San Francisco, CA startup that provides AI logistics automation, raised a $85.0 million Series A led by Redpoint with participation from 8VC and Autotech Ventures. More here.
Shift5, a 6-year-old Arlington, VA startup that provides operational intelligence platform for transportation systems, raised a $75.0 million Series C led by Hedosophia with participation from Insight Partners, Center 15 Capital, 645 Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Booz Allen Ventures, Squadra Ventures, AE Industrial, Disruptive, CSP Equity Partners, and Savano Capital Partners. More here.
Mid-Size Fundings
Euclid Power, a 4-year-old New York, NY startup that provides an operating system for renewable energy project development, raised a $20.0 million Series A led by Venrock with participation from HSBC Asset Management, Spero Ventures, Toba Capital, Designer Fund, and Commonweal Ventures. More here.
Reframe Systems, a 3-year-old Boston, MA startup that develops robotic microfactories for building net-zero homes faster and more affordably, raised a $20.0 million Series A led by Eclipse and VoLo Earth Ventures with participation from MassMutual Catalyst Funds, Cubit Capital, Planetary Health at RA Capital Management, Saga Ventures, and Nor'easter Ventures. More here.
Nuclearn, a 4-year-old Phoenix, AZ startup that provides nuclear plant operating system, raised a $10.5 million Series A led by Blue Bear Capital with participation from AZ-VC, Nucleation Capital, and SJF Ventures. More here.
Icarus Robotics, a 2025-founded New York, NY startup that provides robotic labor force for space, raised a $6.1 million Seed led by Soma Capital and Xtal with participation from Nebular and Massive Tech Ventures. More here.
TracXon, a 3-year-old Eindhoven, Netherlands startup that produces hybrid printed electronics, raised a $5.6 million Seed from Invest-NL's Deep Tech Fonds, DeepTechXL, and Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij. More here.
Candid Intelligence, a 2025-founded San Francisco, CA startup that provides internal AI agent builder for EPC projects, raised a $5.5 million Seed led by Quiet Capital with participation from E14 Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures, Flexcap Ventures, and Yann LeCun. More here.
Smaller Fundings
Rendezvous Robotics, a 2025-founded Golden, CO startup that provides space infrastructure for in-orbit autonomous assembly, raised a $3.0 million Pre-Seed led by Aurelia Foundry and 8090 Industries with participation from ATX Venture Partners and Mana Ventures. More here.
Hive Robotics, a 2025-founded Munich, Germany startup that provides secure solutions for unmanned system operations, raised a $2.4 million Pre-Seed led by b2venture with participation from Firedrop, Pareto, Matthias Hilpert, and Klocke Group. More here.
Orbital Paradigm, a 2-year-old Madrid, Spain startup that develops reusable orbital re-entry capsules, raised a $1.8 million financing from Akka, Demium Capital, and id4 Ventures. More here.
MicroFactory, a 2025-founded San Francisco, CA startup that produces general purpose tabletop robots, raised a $1.5 million Pre-Seed from Naval Ravikant and others. More here.
Procense, a 3-year-old San Francisco, CA startup that provides a process manufacturing automation platform, raised a $1.5 million Seed led by Kevin Mahaffey. More here.
Thanks for Reading!
-Greg
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