The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown the world how attritable systems enable new tactics that threaten larger forces and critical infrastructure. As China conducts exercises near Taiwan and the U.S. faces potential conflict in a decentralized maritime environment, leaders across the innovation ecosystem and the Dept. of Defense recognize the need to secure America’s maritime future with a new hybrid fleet. Sit down with Dino Mavrookas, co-founder and CEO at Saronic, and he’ll double down on this belief knowing that the future of defense is about speed, autonomy, and scale.
At General Catalyst, we partner with founders whose mission is to modernize industries such as defense and industrial in service of national resilience. Several of our own partners have witnessed firsthand how unmanned systems became true force multipliers in Afghanistan and in other theaters of conflict. Applying lessons from the past, like the ‘mosquito fleet’ from WWII, in anticipation of tomorrow’s environment, we believe Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs) represent a transformational opportunity for our maritime resilience. We also see how the tools to build these capabilities, from R&D to manufacturing and distribution, are now accessible to agile, motivated entrepreneurs with real-world operational experience enabling transformation of legacy industries.
From an early age, Dino Mavrookas was called to service and spent a decade as a Navy SEAL. Having served within several elite units often thrust into dynamic environments, his team relied upon having technological superiority to maintain the tactical advantage. Years after leaving the military, he heard the alarm bells going off as he watched our defense apparatus struggle to reorient toward great power competition. Dino knew how modern technology is once again the answer - but this time in a much more challenging distributed maritime environment where no solution existed. Moving with elite intensity, he co-founded Saronic in 2022 and got to work to rebuild U.S. and allied partner maritime hegemony.
Naval Warfare in a Hybrid Era
In just two years, Saronic has iterated quickly and scaled their business, starting with a family of small autonomous surface vessels. They reimagined how hulls are designed, allowing them to go faster and be more maneuverable, bolstered by rapid production scalability. Providing flexibility to deployed forces through modular software-centric design philosophies, their platforms integrate with the Navy’s conventional fleet, adding mission effectiveness via AI-driven mission autonomy and a suite of optional mission payloads with security in mind.
Today, Saronic fields three ASVs–the Spyglass, Cutlass, and Corsair–to meet operational requirements, including persistent command and control; movement and maneuver; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); fires; and sustainability. Designed for autonomy from the keel up, Saronic’s vessels unlock a new frontier of maritime tactics that increases reach, survivability, and lethality. The foundation Saronic has built in these first core products extend to mission applications within contested logistics, transport, and for homeland security as well. But it doesn’t end there.
The Future of the Maritime Industry
Saronic isn’t just reimagining end products. The team is addressing deeper challenges of a sluggish and hollowed-out U.S. shipbuilding industry. In an industry that talks in 30-year plans, with operational shipyards declining by over 30% in the past 20 years, revitalization requires an ambitious vision for the next generation of shipyards. From the start, Saronic established the manufacturing approach enabling the expansion of their ASV family of systems into medium and large-class autonomous ships. By investing in critical infrastructure, Saronic is positioned to deliver the scale and capabilities needed to achieve the Navy’s hybrid fleet strategy.
This next phase in maritime evolution hinges on a fundamental shift to a software-first, secure, and continuously upgradable paradigm that is critical for rapid mission reconfiguration. We believe Saronic will be a leader in the transformation of the shipbuilding industry ensuring the fleet remains at the cutting edge of performance and reliability for years to come. Saronic is allowing the warfighter to reimagine what is in the art of possible operationally and will ensure the United States and its allies maintain the strategic advantage in the maritime domain.
We’re proud to partner with Saronic in their Series C fundraise, alongside Elad Gil, to accelerate the transformation of the maritime defense and commercial industry. Our investment and belief in Saronic is that it’s not enough to trust that industry will respond in time if war breaks out; we must invest now and weave these innovations into the very fabric of American maritime power.