Insider Brief
- Booz Allen Hamilton announced its venture arm, Booz Allen Ventures, has invested in Ulysses as part of the company’s Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, marking its first investment in maritime robotics
- The investment expands its capabilities in autonomous maritime systems, targeting use cases including mine countermeasures, multi-vehicle operations and survey missions in high-risk undersea environments
- Booz Allen said the deal aligns with its broader push into defense-focused autonomy and follows its partnership with Andreessen Horowitz to accelerate deployment of advanced technologies across national security applications
Booz Allen Hamilton announced its venture arm, Booz Allen Ventures, has invested in Ulysses, a San Francisco-based company developing autonomous surface and underwater vehicles, as demand grows for lower-cost, scalable maritime systems.
According to Booz Allen, the investment is part of Ulysses’ Series A round, led by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, and marks Booz Allen’s first investment in the maritime robotics sector. The company said the move expands its ability to deliver integrated autonomous solutions for missions such as mine countermeasures, multi-vehicle operations and maritime surveys.
“This investment reflects our commitment and conviction that maritime autonomous systems will be a defining domain for years to come in building and ensuring maritime dominance,” managing partner of Booz Allen Ventures Brian MacCarthy said in a statement. “By backing dual-use, venture-backed startups like Ulysses, we are expanding our portfolio into robotics and autonomy and building capabilities that enable deployment at speed across sea, air, and land.”
Ulysses is focused on building cost-efficient, high-volume platforms designed for deployment in complex and high-risk environments. Its systems combine hardware and onboard computing to support autonomous operations across applications including infrastructure inspection, environmental monitoring and search and recovery.
Booz Allen said the investment aligns with its broader strategy to expand capabilities in autonomy and robotics across defense and national security, particularly in undersea environments where operational costs remain high and coverage is limited.
The deal follows a partnership between Booz Allen Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz announced earlier this year, aimed at accelerating the adoption of advanced technologies across defense-related use cases.
“Ulysses is exactly the kind of company we had in mind, a bold team building critical capabilities at the intersection of autonomy and maritime defense,” noted Jen Kha, head of global partnerships at Andreessen Horowitz. “Seeing this investment happen in parallel with Booz Allen is a proof point that our collaboration is already delivering.”
