Blue Water Autonomy
"Building the Future Fleet"
Boston startup founded 2024 building the Liberty Class, a 67.7 m, 810-ton uncrewed surface ship for 2-3 month ocean missions; $64M raised.
Blue Water Autonomy is a Boston-based shipbuilder developing long-range uncrewed ships for naval and government use. It was founded in 2024 by CEO Rylan Hamilton, chief strategy officer Austin Gray and CTO Scott N. Miller. Hamilton is a former US Navy engineering and surface warfare officer, an early leader at Amazon Robotics and founder of 6 River Systems, which was sold to Shopify. Gray is a former US Navy intelligence officer who later volunteered at a drone factory in Ukraine. The company lists locations in Boston, Washington D.C., Morgan City (Louisiana) and San Diego.
Its first platform is the Liberty Class, a medium uncrewed surface vessel designed around integrated hardware, software and AI rather than converting a crewed hull. Published specifications are an overall length of 67.70 m, beam of 9.00 m, displacement of 810 metric tons, ABS AH36 steel construction, a range of 10,700 nautical miles, speed of 25 knots and endurance for missions of two to three months. The payload area takes six 40-foot containers with more than 1 MW of power per container, and the vessel is designed for Level 4 autonomy.
The company raised a $14 million seed round in April 2025 and a $50 million Series A in August 2025 led by GV, with Eclipse, Riot Ventures and Impatient Ventures participating, for $64 million in total funding. After the seed round it reported quadrupling its team, completing on-water engineering tests and sourcing materials from more than 50 suppliers, and said it planned to complete the first full-scale long-range ship in 2026.
In August 2026 Blue Water Autonomy announced it was one of six awardees on a two-year Naval Oceanographic Office contract (ceiling $40 million shared, August 2026 to July 2028) for open-ocean mapping in the Indian Ocean and Pacific basins using long-endurance uncrewed surface vessels, with work issued as competed firm-fixed-price task orders.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
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Contact Blue Water Autonomy
WEBSITE
https://www.blw.ai/HEADQUARTERS
United States
Company Facts
Founded
2024
Primary Role
Manufacturer
Company Size
-
Primary Region
North America
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Early-Stage VC
Funding Total
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