More funding is pouring into startups building technology to navigate better in water. Regent Craft, a company out of Rhode Island, USA, has now raised a Series B of $240 million to expand production of its dual-use “Seaglider” electric maritime vessels, including a big expansion in Europe.
A big portion of the funding will be going towards filling out existing expectations in terms of development and production as well as inking more military partnerships.
The company said in mid-2025 that it has a commercial order backlog of $10 billion from a mix of commercial and non-commercial customers. But it has yet to produce the product that all of its business hinges on. Regent Craft vessels up to now have been in testing and development only. So far, there has been no testing with humans on board. It recently completed work on its 255,000-square-foot Seaglider Manufacturing Facility, but full production is not expected until the end of 2027 at the earliest, and the timeline will also include necessary regulatory approvals as well.
“This investment marks a critical inflection point for Regent as we move from development into production,” said Billy Thalheimer, the CEO who co-founded the company with CTO Mike Klinker. “We have built significant momentum across both our defence and commercial pipelines, and this funding enables us to scale manufacturing, execute key certification milestones, and deliver Seagliders to customers.”
The Series B funding is coming in the form of $120 million in equity and $120 million in debt, the company said. The equity portion is co-led by AE Ventures and Mare Liberum, two investors respectively focused on resilience bets and maritime technology. Erebor, the new defence banking and finance startup co-founded by Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, is providing the debt.
Other key investors in the equity portion include Balnord from Poland, SDF (the Strategic Development Fund, wholly owned by defence player EDGE Group of Abu Dhabi), Lockheed Martin, DCVC, Japan Airlines, Caffeinated, Founders Fund and many others.
Balnord’s funding specifically is earmarked for Regent Craft to build out its footprint in the Baltics and the rest of Europe.
“Our geographic focus is concentrated on the Baltic Sea Region and Northern Europe,” Marcin Kowalik, a general partner at Balnord, told Resilience Media over email. Regent Craft is the firm’s first full US investment, he added. “We decided to back them because maritime security is critical for the sovereignty of NATO’s eastern flank, and Regent’s specific technology will be crucial for safe operations in the Baltic Sea. Additionally, we see a strong opportunity to utilise Polish shipyards to help establish service, maintenance, and production facilities for Europe here in Gdansk.” He added that the European rollout will come after the company’s prototype of its larger Viceroy vessel (called ‘Paladin’), which is scheduled “for the next couple of weeks,” after which point it will work on certification. “We expect to receive full certification and have an operational product by the beginning of next year.”
We do not have a valuation but are looking and will update this post as we learn more. For some context, PitchBook data puts Regent Craft’s last funding valuation, from 2024, at $192 million.
The company’s flagship products are Viceroy and Squire, two models of Seaglider (which it has trademarked, although there appear to be others using the same term) that are fixed-wing, all-electric plane-meets-hydrofoil vehicles.
Viceroy is the larger of the two and aims to travel at speeds of up to 180km/hour over water with a range of 180 miles, designed to carry up 3,000 pounds of cargo and/or passengers. Squire is a “Seaglider drone”, a wing-in ground effect craft aimed at the defence market.
The company’s initial focus was on the commercial market — where it inked early deals with companies like Brittany Ferries to explore faster vessels to complement its fleet of ferries. (Note: Brittany said that its plan is to use Regent sea gliders capable of carrying between 50 and 150 passengers, significantly more than Regent itself says is the capacity.)
While those are still in the works — Brittany Ferries said it thinks the first vessels will come online in 2028 — Regent Craft has doubled down on the idea of dual-use and is building also for the military and defence use-cases. It initially signed a small deal ($4.75 million) in 2023 with the US Marine Corps to work on technology together. And in 2025 it made an even bigger commitment to the space with the launch of Regent Defense, a business unit specifically targeting the sector.
Regent Craft’s funding is one of the latest in a string of significant investments into startups specifically building capabilities that work under, on or above water. Naval use cases have become especially prominent in recent times given the Iran war and issues in the Strait of Hormuz; the sea component of the war in Ukraine, and Russia’s wider posture in European waters; and China’s manoeuvres around Taiwan.
Other developments have included Kraken raising $175 million; Saronic raising $1.75 billion; and defence tech companies like Frankenburg and Uforce, sometimes better known for UAVs, building more capabilities for the maritime domain.
“As maritime defence priorities evolve, operators need new capabilities that deliver greater speed, reach, and flexibility,” said Admiral Lorin Selby, General Partner at Mare Liberum, in a statement. “Regent is a leader in this emerging category with a strong track record of technical development and growing engagement with defence customers. By combining our expertise in maritime technology and national security with Regent innovative leadership and proven ability to deliver, we are well positioned to accelerate the next phase of Seaglider technology and its adoption across the defence market.”
AE Ventures, the venture capital platform of AE Industrial Partners, brings extensive expertise built over many years supporting businesses that develop mission-critical capabilities across the aerospace and national security markets. REGENT joins an AE Ventures portfolio of early-stage companies tackling some of the most complex challenges across these markets.
“REGENT is addressing a critical gap in maritime defense operations, and the progress made since the establishment of REGENT Defense — including the first flight of Squire and the completion of its manufacturing facility — positions the business for its next phase of growth,” said Brian Schettler, Partner and Head of AE Ventures. “We look forward to partnering with the REGENT team as they scale manufacturing and pursue their next set of military and commercial milestones.”
