Scout AI, a Sunnyvale, CA-based developer of AI foundation models for defense robotics, has raised $100M in Series A funding co-led by Align Ventures and Draper Associates. The capital funds development of Fury, a vision-language-action (VLA) model that enables uncrewed platforms to process natural language commands, coordinate in swarms, and operate autonomously across ground, air, maritime, and space domains using minimal sensors. With $115M total raised including a $15M seed in 2025, Scout claims the largest defense-tech Series A in US history.
DoD Replicator Fuels Autonomy Race
The round arrives amid surging DoD demand for attritable autonomous systems under the Replicator initiative. Investors like Booz Allen Ventures, which backed Shield AI to a $5B+ valuation, signal strategic validation. Scout's hardware-agnostic approach differentiates from full-stack competitors like Shield AI's $1B+ Hivemind or Anduril Industries' $5B+ Lattice platform.
GPS-Denied Ops Strain Legacy Stacks
Geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and Taiwan drive need for scalable unmanned fleets, but traditional autonomy relies on costly LIDAR and GPS, failing in denied environments. The military robotics market stands at $22B, growing at 8-10% CAGR. Scout targets this gap with camera-only VLA models that enable zero-shot generalization on COTS hardware.
Fury Enables Agentic Fleet Orchestration
Fury transforms robotic platforms into mission-adaptive agents via end-to-end learning from vision to action. Unlike domain-specific stacks, it supports heterogeneous swarms with natural language re-tasking and low SWaP for edge deployment. Demos show Fury powering Polaris mRZR ATVs for Army logistics without disengagements.
As CTO Collin Otis explained:
"[Soldiers] start when they’re 18 years old… what do I have to do to teach this thing to be an incredible military AGI?"
Investors Back DoD Contract Momentum
Co-leads Align Ventures (prior seed) and Draper Associates bring autonomy expertise from Cruise and Tesla. Decisive Point adds government contracting support, while Booz Allen Ventures connects to Shield AI's success. The syndicate reflects conviction in Scout's $11M DoD contracts from DARPA and Army since 2024 founding.
Platform-Agnostic Models Reshape Defense
Scout positions Fury as the 'AI brain' for existing hardware providers, avoiding manufacturing. Competitors like Saronic's $1B+ maritime vessels focus on proprietary builds. DoD wins like xTechOverwatch and 1st Cavalry integration underscore traction in a market trending toward AI swarms.
Ex-Kodiak Leaders Drive Technical Edge
CEO Colby Adcock, Figure AI board member, pairs with CTO Collin Otis, ex-Kodiak Robotics where he led defense autonomy for USMC prototypes. Otis' Uber ATG experience bolsters commercialization. This duo secured Army OTA contracts in stealth phase.
Army Integrations Signal Scale-Up
Funds accelerate Fury training at military bases and team growth to 34 from 28. Recent 1st Cavalry Division deployment on Polaris mRZR targets logistics and CASEVAC. Partnerships with Hendrick Motorsports and Nominal expand multidomain testing.