Defence technology startup Shield AI has secured $240m in its F-1 funding round, bringing its valuation to approximately $5.3bn.
The funding will facilitate the expansion of Shield AI’s Hivemind Enterprise, an AI-powered autonomy platform designed for developers and organisations in the robotics and drone sectors.
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The financing saw contributions from investors including L3Harris and Hanwha Aerospace, alongside support from existing backers including Andreessen Horowitz, US Innovative Technology, and Washington Harbour.
Shield AI expects the capital injection to expand the reach of Hivemind Enterprise to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), governments, and various companies, enabling them to create autonomy products.
Shield AI chief technology officer Nathan Michael said: “Developing autonomy is both complex and costly.
“Hivemind Enterprise solves this widely known problem and enables the rapid and efficient proliferation of resilient, high-performance autonomy for intelligent machines across industries.
“Hivemind Enterprise is about supercharging the industrial base to build and monetise autonomy, enabling a world of millions of autonomous systems in the next ten years.”
The platform’s software helps in streamlining the development of autonomous systems.
It offers developers a multi-year advantage through its platform products, AI-powered toolsets, and the application of Shield AI’s autonomy work that facilitates unmanned system operations in GPS- and communications-denied environments.
The suite includes an integrated autonomy factory, production-ready middleware, an extensive autonomy catalogue, and a user-friendly mission control interface.
Shield AI president and co-founder Brandon Tseng said: “The same tools that make up Hivemind Enterprise have already enabled Shield AI to autonomously fly F-16s, MQ-20s, MQM-178s, operate V-BATs in GPS- and communications-denied environments, and have quadcopters explore buildings and tunnels for US and Israeli forces.
“Partnerships with strategics like L3 Harris and Hanwha Aerospace further accelerate efforts to proliferate resilient autonomy.”
In an effort towards enhancing large-scale autonomous operations, Shield AI expanded its partnership with Palantir Technologies in December 2024.
The collaboration focuses on developing command and control solutions for autonomous uncrewed systems, tailored for use in scenarios where traditional GPS and communications are unavailable.
