Your ultimate authority for daily Elon Musk news.
Exploring the world's biggest ideas with your host Will
Walden. There's something new everyday.
Adrina M raised $10 million in seed funding in 36 hours.
This event prompts 1 clear question What makes investors
moves so fast to fund a company working on underwater sensing
technology now? The answer lies in how Andrina M
blends artificial intelligence with a century old defense tool
to address modern national security challenges.
The company was founded in just 2024 by a former SpaceX engineer
and a technologist, and they're developing software and hardware
that analyzes sonar data in real time to detect underwater
targets like submarines. This fast infusion of capital
reflects how much confidence investors have in the startups
ability to reshape underwater surveillance.
Andrea M focuses on updating hydrophone technology by using
machine learning to process sonar data.
Hydrophones have assisted us for over a century and remain a
primary tool for spotting enemy submarines, but much of the data
analysis still relies on manual processes.
Operators typically sit in small, enclosed stations wearing
headphones and attempt to interpret fuzzy sonar screens.
Andreena M Software replaces these analog methods with an
automated system that provides immediate, clearer insights into
underwater activity. This approach promises faster
and more accurate detection of underwater threats.
The company intends to use the $10 million to expand its eight
person team to 16 employees. Most new hires will be software
engineers who will advance the machine learning capabilities of
Adrenal AM Systems, and the funding will also support
hardware development. The team plans to move beyond
pairing off the shelf hydrophones with their software.
They aim to build custom buoys embedded with their technology.
Building their own hardware will help Adrina M reduce costs while
generating richer data to improve their algorithms.
Now the founders believe that vertical integration offers a
competitive advantage. Centosec points out that many of
their competitors combined parts from various sources, creating
systems that are expensive and difficult to maintain.
Adrina Ms. strategy is to design a complete solution in house,
which will make their sensing network cheaper and more
reliable. And the company envisions A
distributed sonar mesh that provides comprehensive coverage
of critical maritime zones. A first round Capital led the
seed round, which also included investments from Also Capital,
Long Journey Home Brew and Colorado School of Minds Venture
Fund. The speed of the deal stemmed in
part from how Adrina M team presented a working system
rather than a theoretical prototype concept.
They also already deployed prototypes off the California
coast, demonstrating functional technology.
This readiness convinced investors that the company was
not years away from meaningful deployment, unlike many early
stage defense startups. Investor Mika Osanai of First
Round Capital reacted strongly to the potential after reviewing
the company's pitch materials, he piloted his own plane from
San Francisco to Hawthorne to meet the team.
The meeting took place on a Saturday because the startups
team was already working through the weekend and by the following
Monday they received a term sheet.
The pace of these discussions shows how compelling the
readiness and technology appear to investors and their
technology appeals. Beyond military uses, though,
the company sees opportunities in commercial sectors,
particularly in port security. The ability to monitor and
secure key infrastructure at sea has attracted interest from both
the Pentagon and investors who want dual use applications.
The focus positions Adrena M to serve both public and private
customers, which broadens its market potential.
The company also used part of its funding to purchase a boat,
which will allow the team to test and deploy hardware system
more efficiently. Adrena M encourages its
engineers to take an active role in field work rather than
limiting themselves to desk work.
This approach ensures that the team stays connected to the
challenges of deploying technology in real maritime
environments. Now, the motivation to create
Adrena M stems in part from the family history of one of the
founders. The parents immigrated to the
United States from the Czech Republic during communist rule,
arriving with very little resources, no money, no food.
This experience shaped his desire to contribute to national
security and build a company that can make a lasting
difference for the United States.
They see Adrina M as an opportunity to create a company
with long term value that serves the country's defense needs.
Now, Adrina M plans to continue refining its hardware and
software as it grows. The company will use the seed
funding to accelerate its development cycle and prepare
for larger deployments and bigger customers.
By combining advanced software with custom built hardware,
Adrina M aims to change how maritime surveillance is
conducted and make underwater sensing more affordable and
efficient to the government. Adrina M secured $10 million in
36 hours because they presented real world progress toward
building an advanced underwater sensing network.
Not just an idea, but something that actually works.
Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
I really do appreciate your support.
If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow
button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
to patreon.com/stage Zero. And please take care of
yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.