Shield AI

Shield AI is a defense-technology company using self-driving software to enable unmanned systems to operate without GPS and communications.

Shield AI makes hardware and software to transform drones and aircraft into autonomous systems capable of executing missions in contested environments.

Shield AI was founded in 2015 by Brandon Tseng, Ryan Tseng, and Andrew Reiter. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California, with offices in Washington D.C., Dallas, and Abu Dhabi.

 

Shield AI is building the world’s best AI pilot. Its AI pilot, Hivemind, has flown a fighter jet (F-16), a vertical takeoff and landing drone (V-BAT), and a quadcopter (Nova).

 

Shield partners with the Defense Department and Defense OEMs to integrate its Hivemind AI and autonomy software stack into unmanned systems, including retrofitting existed ones.

 

Shield is also working on a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft called V-BAT that will be soon equipped with Hivemind. The software is being integrated into other aircraft, too, such as the F-16 fighter jet pictured above, where it will act as a co-pilot alongside a human, with the aim for it to be used also across F-22s, F-18s and other models.

 

Shield is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Point72 Ventures, Breyer Capital, Homebrew, U.S. Innovative Technology Fund (USIT), Snowpoint Ventures, SVB Capital, Disruptive, Founder Collective, Bloomberg Beta, Riot Ventures, ARK Invest, and others. The company raised $200M in an oversubscribed Series F round on Oct 31, 2023. This brings Shield AI's total funding to $993.1M to date. The latest round pushed the company's valuation to $2.7B up from previous $2.3B achieved after $165M Series E in Jun 2022.

 

 

  • Year founded: 2015
  • Funding Info: $993.1M over 11 Rounds (Latest Funding Type: Series F)
  • Yearly Revenue: NA
  • Employee Size: 501-1,000
  • Business Valuation: Valued at over $2.7B as of Oct 31, 2023
  • City/Town: San Diego
  • State: California
  • Country: United States
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