Vatn Systems

Check out our CEO Nelson Mills discussing Vatn’s recent fundraise, defense tech in general, and many other topics on This Week in Startups with Jason Calacanis & Alex Wilhelm!

From growing up on a sailboat to pioneering underwater defense technology — Vatn Systems co-founders Nelson and Freddie Mills, along with Dan Hendrix and Geoff Manchester have turned a lifetime on the water into a mission to redefine underwater autonomy. Thank you, TechCrunch, for sharing our story! Dive into the journey that led to Vatn’s vision for affordable, scalable underwater vehicle swarms.

We are excited to announce that we’ve raised $13 million in an oversubscribed seed round, bringing our total funding to $16.5 million. The round was led by?DYNE Ventures, with participation from?Lockheed Martin Ventures,?RTX?Ventures, IQT (In-Q-Tel),?Propeller,?SAIC?Ventures,?Cubit Capital,?Fortitude Ventures, and existing investors including?Centre Street Partners,?The Veteran Fund, and?Blue Collective. This funding will accelerate our path to production and help us transform defense, research, and other maritime industries. We are proud of the progress we’ve made and excited about what’s to come as we continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible underwater. Thank you to our investors, team, and partners for your continued support on this incredible journey. Press Release: https://lnkd.in/eW6a6RbP https://lnkd.in/ekQSsm7z

Thank you to all the courageous men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces! At Vatn, we are committed to supporting our service members with advanced technology that helps keep them out of danger. Vatn is borne out of the direct experiences of our team of veterans. Vatn was co-founded by Dan Hendrix, our Chief Revenue Officer, who graduated from the Air Force Academy and served as an AF Intel Officer before transitioning to Army Special Forces where he led a dive team. In his military career, Dan deployed 10 times overseas. We have also welcomed to the team recently two interns that will be supporting customer success, business development, and product development. Kevin Wicherski, an MBA student at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, served as a Special Warfare Combat Crewman with Navy Special Warfare and Alex Santangelo, an MPP/MBA student at Harvard Kennedy School/Harvard Business School, served as a Surface Warfare Officer on the destroyer USS WINSTON S. CHURCHILL (DDG 81).

I feel like a proud Village Person having Abacus Insights, Dataiku, Dymium, Inc, Hipocratic AI, Nooks, Orca Security, Proteus Space, Vatn Systems, and Xage Security join us and our other partners at SAIC #OutFront in the Ventures Village. Thanks for taking the time to show off! Some are #SAICVentures Portfolio Companies, some are great strategic partners. All are led by great people with tremendous tech creating value with us for our #GovernmentCustomers. Come join us in #PartnershipPower.

Shoutout to our team members who took part in the 2024 Pell Bridge Run. Their participation helped raise more than $100,000 for local and national charities. At Vatn we take pride in not only pushing the boundaries of technology but also in giving back to the community. Alex Jensen, Erin Conn, Geoff Manchester.

One year ago today, Vatn deployed our first AUV. Since then, we’ve moved from prototype to fully operational systems, executing missions in various DoD exercises, while advancing our swarming technology and developing our INSTINCT inertial navigation system. Our AUVs now handle complex tasks in challenging conditions, and our team has grown along the way from 8 to 18! To our team and partners: thank you for helping us push the boundaries of what's possible. Here’s to another year of innovation and impact!

Thanks again to NUWC and NE Techbridge/401 Techbridge for bringing together the people and tech for BlueTIDE 24. Vatn had a great experience and looks forward to next year.

Happy Birthday Navy!

Thank you to all who attended our Defense Tech Happy Hour last night and to Alexa M. Monti and The Engine Accelerator for including us as part of Boston’s first ever #ToughTech Week! We had the opportunity to hear from the following founders in a panel moderated by Merlin's VP of Business Operations, Ashley (Pelzek) Ferguson: ?? Shahriar Khushrushahi, Founder of Notch Inc. ?? Jake Guglin, CEO & Co-Founder of Foundation Alloy ?? Nelson Mills, Founder of Vatn Systems Stay tuned for the next one!