Where is Blue Water Autonomy based?

Blue Water Autonomy is based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

When was Blue Water Autonomy founded?

Blue Water Autonomy was founded in 2024.

Where does Blue Water Autonomy operate robots?

Blue Water Autonomy is a robot manufacturer and does not directly operate deployments on the DEPLOY registry. Its products are deployed by customer operators; see the company page for the verified deployment record.

Is Blue Water Autonomy safe?

Blue Water Autonomy has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.

Blue Water Autonomy

Overview

Early-stage US autonomous-ship startup (Boston/Cambridge MA; founded 2024; founders ex-Navy/Amazon Robotics/iRobot) building a full-size long-range autonomous ship (~190ft Liberty Class); pre-deploy, $64M raised.

Verified record

Verified deployments: None on file
Active incidents: None on file

DEPLOY Intelligence

Market intelligence for physical AI

Analyst-grade signals, competitive tracking, and investment context across the global physical AI landscape. Launching 2026.

Models (1)

View all models →

Current platform

Blue Water autonomous ship (Liberty Class)

Blue Water Autonomy, an early-stage startup based in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, is building toward a full-sized long-range autonomous ship and is recorded in the maritime form factor at research, pre-deploy maturity, completing the cohort's maturity ladder at its bottom rung. It was founded in 2024 by chief executive Rylan Hamilton, a former US Navy surface warfare officer and early Amazon Robotics leader who co-founded 6 River Systems, alongside Scott Miller, an early iRobot engineer, and Navy veteran Austin Gray, and has raised about $64 million, a $14 million seed in April 2025 plus a $50 million Series A led by GV, and signed a production agreement with Conrad Shipyard in Louisiana in September 2025. Its verified-versus-claimed profile is the load-bearing point: verified are the company's existence, its $64 million in funding, the GV-led Series A, the Conrad production deal, and a credentialed team, while its roughly 190-foot Liberty-class autonomous ship designed to cross the Pacific and operate for months, and a 2026 first deployment, are claimed and unproven, with no fielded vessel and no DARPA or Navy program-of-record contract as of mid-2026, correctly placing it at research and pre-deploy. Several corrections to common priors apply: it was founded in 2024 rather than 2023, with 2023 a possible stealth-inception; its vessel is described by the company at about 190 feet rather than 100 to 150 feet, the framing having grown; the often-cited Sea Machines founder link could not be confirmed, with the verified pedigree being Navy, Amazon Robotics, and iRobot; and the 2026 first deployment is a forward claim rather than a fielded result.

maritimeView model →

Relationships

GGV (Google Ventures)Investor EEclipse VenturesInvestor RRiot VenturesInvestor IImpatient VenturesInvestor

Current leadership (3)

Rylan Hamilton Co-founder and CEOsince 2024-01-01secondary-verified
Austin Gray Co-foundersince 2024-01-01secondary-verified
Scott N. Miller Co-foundersince 2024-01-01secondary-verified

Founders (3)

Rylan Hamiltoncofounderfounded 2024-01-01
Austin Graycofounderfounded 2024-01-01
Scott N. Millercofounderfounded 2024-01-01

Safety record

No incidents on record for Blue Water Autonomy.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Recent coverage

Blue Water Autonomy in third-party press

Blue Water Autonomy unveils Liberty-class USV for the U.S. Navy

Feb 1, 2026

Peer companies

Financial state

Reporting basis: private_reported
Lifecycle stage: early
Counterparty risk class: moderate

Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.

Funding rounds (2)

Series A2025-09-01
$50M
Investors: GV (Google Ventures) (lead), Eclipse Ventures, Riot Ventures, Impatient Ventures
Seed2025-04-01
$14M
Investors: Eclipse Ventures, Riot Ventures, Impatient Ventures

Sources (3)

Common questions

What is Blue Water Autonomy?: Early-stage US autonomous-ship startup (Boston/Cambridge MA; founded 2024; founders ex-Navy/Amazon Robotics/iRobot) building a full-size long-range autonomous ship (~190ft Liberty Class); pre-deploy, $64M raised.
Where is Blue Water Autonomy based?: Blue Water Autonomy is based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
When was Blue Water Autonomy founded?: Blue Water Autonomy was founded in 2024.
What does Blue Water Autonomy make?: Blue Water Autonomy has 1 robot model on the DEPLOY registry: Blue Water autonomous ship (Liberty Class) (Blue Water Autonomy builds both physical robots and the AI that runs them).
Where does Blue Water Autonomy operate robots?: Blue Water Autonomy is a robot manufacturer and does not directly operate deployments on the DEPLOY registry. Its products are deployed by customer operators; see the company page for the verified deployment record.
Is Blue Water Autonomy safe?: Blue Water Autonomy has no incidents on record in the DEPLOY registry. This does not constitute a safety guarantee; it reflects the incidents DEPLOY has tracked and verified to date.

Methodology: Verified · 3 sources (1 primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-03

Verification posture

Verified

High confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-03

Sources by quality tier

2: unclassified; Unclassified source
1: primary-company-ir; Company IR disclosure

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Peer companies

In the press

Recent coverage mentioning Blue Water Autonomy from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.

AgentReconFeb 1, 2026

Blue Water Autonomy unveils Liberty-class USV for the U.S. Navy

Blue Water Autonomy unveiled its first vessel, the Liberty-class USV, at WEST 2026 in San Diego. Autonomous vessel design for US Navy operations.

↗

Machine-readable surfaces

Markdown mirror: /companies/blue-water-autonomy.md
RSS feed: /companies/blue-water-autonomy/feed.xml
JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
REST API: /v1/companies/f251f52f-405c-40cc-91e2-16649370d204
Revision history: /companies/blue-water-autonomy/history
Data documentation: /data
Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP

Peer companies

DEPLOY Intelligence Score

39.8/ 100

vs 6 months ago

6-month trend

Peer rankingTop 4% of Maritime

vs funding peers+7.3 ptscapital-efficient

Analysis

Funded with institutional backing on record. Limited public visibility and press coverage relative to peers.

Dimension breakdown

Funding Health

66.3HIGH

Safety Record

50.0LOW

IP Activity

5.0LOW

Deployment Scale

0.0LOW

Hiring Signal

0.0LOW

Market Presence

0.0LOW

DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.

Last computed: Jul 3, 2026

Intelligence layer