The maritime mash-ups continue. Yesterday, 8VC-backed unmanned surface vessel (USV) company Saronic announced that they’re teaming up with Vigor Marine Group, a maritime services provider that specializes in marine fabrication, vessel repair, and maintenance.
According to a release by Saronic, the two companies will form a strategic partnership and “work closely to identify opportunities to advance the priorities of core U.S. government and commercial maritime customers.”
“Combining Saronic’s technical leadership in autonomous maritime systems and scaled production with Vigor’s strategically located infrastructure and experience in maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) and lifecycle sustainment creates new opportunities to accelerate capability delivery,” Saronic CEO Dino Mavrookas said in a statement.
In other words, Saronic will benefit from Vigor’s massive existing sustainment and fabrication infrastructure, while Vigor will expand their portfolio to include unmanned vessels. Sounds like a pretty good deal to us.
Big bucks: Saronic was born out of 8VC’s Build Program back in 2022 and has been flying high funding-wise ever since.
- The company’s backers include General Catalyst, 8VC, a16z, Caffeinated Capital, and Lightspeed—real heavy hitters.
- The company raised a $600M Series C at a $4B post-money valuation back in February. and announced they would be building a new-age shipyard called “Port Alpha,” but details have remained scant.
- In April, Saronic bought up a Louisiana-based shipbuilder called Gulf Craft, where it said it will produce its big ‘ol’ Marauder USV.
- In an interview with Tectonic after the acquisition, Mavrookas hinted that the company would be going out for more funding—and soon.
So far, the company has announced a range of six USVs, from teeny-tiny up to warship-sized:
- The six-foot Spyglass
- The 14-foot Cutlass
- The 24-foot Corsair
- The 40-foot Mirage
- The 60-foot Cipher
- The 150-foot Marauder
Last year, it was awarded a $25M NAVSEA OTA contract for “maritime expeditionary systems” and its smaller boats—the Spyglas and Cutlass—participated in the Navy’s Integrated Battle Problem 24.1 exercise in March 2024.
As the Navy has leaned into medium and large USVs (remember that $2.1B in the Big Beautiful Bill), so too has Saronic. The company says it plans to have the 150-foot Marauder in the water by early next year, and will release two more products by year’s end.
Old-school: Where Saronic is all new-age 8VC, Vigor is old-school maritime sustainment. The company was founded back in 1995 to provide rapid ship repair and fabrication, and has been doing that ever since.
- The company has grown through acquisitions, snapping up shipyards everywhere from Alaska to Oregon.
- It’s also had a boost from private equity: In 2019, the Carlyle group merged Vigor with MHI holdings, then just last month added three more yards (totaling five) and rebranded the megalith “Vigor Marine Group.”
- The company now has five shipyards, about 2,600 employees, and 8 dry docks.
And to sweeten the deal, Vigor already has some pretty major contracts with the US Navy:
- A $294M contract to provide support services for the USS Kidd Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer
- A $76.1M contract for maintenance, modernization, and repair of the USS John S. McCain Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer
- A $42.2M contract for repairs and modifications of the USS Sampson Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer
Plus, they were one of 10 companies selected as part of a $944M IDIQ for maintenance and repair of non-nuclear Navy surface vessels.
The Saronic partnership seems like it’ll help bring Vigor into the unmanned era.
“With this partnership, we are aligning our core strengths to advance autonomous maritime capabilities that meet the urgent and evolving needs of our defense and commercial customers,” Vigor Marine Group CEO Francesco Valente said in a statement.