Seattle-based Overland AI raised $100 million in new funding to meet demand for its autonomous ground vehicles for the U.S. military.
The investment — the largest to date for the startup spun out of the University of Washington in 2022 — was led by 8VC. Other backers include Point72 Ventures, Ascend Venture Capital, Shasta Ventures, and Overmatch Ventures, as well as new supporters Valor Equity Partners, StepStone Group and TriplePoint Capital.
“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.
The company said the funding will enable it to meet rapidly growing demand for ULTRA, its autonomous ground vehicle. 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 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.
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 announced a $32 million funding round and 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. The company has 101 employees, up from 58 people a year ago, according to LinkedIn data.
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