Underwater sensing startup Andrenam lands $18M Series A to scale Pearl buoys
What's the deal? AndrenamDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a California-based startup building underwater acoustic sensors and AI software, has raised an $18 million Series A. Upfront Ventures led the round, with Valor Equity Partners, Also CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and First Round Capital participating.
The round brings Andrenam's total funding to $30 million, following a $10 million seed that closed in 36 hours last year.
What's the endgame? Andrenam sells two products. Pearl is a networked buoy with a suspended passive sonar array that detects underwater activity; Obsidian is the AI software that processes the data to detect, track, and classify vessels in real time.
The company has built 35 Pearl buoys, which have logged more than 4,500 in-water hours in deployments off the California and Washington coasts. The Series A will fund production of a fourth-generation buoy designed for scale.
Why now? Co-founder and chief executive officer Matej CernosekDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a former SpaceX engineer, argues that sonar is the only technology that works for long-range detection at sea. "Sonar is the only thing that works for long-range detection, and we're solving that maritime intelligence gap through our distributed hardware, as well as our software," he said.
He points to demand from adversaries and criminal groups: "peer adversaries like China are building six times the number of submarines or more per year than the US," Cernosek said, while "criminal organizations are starting to move underneath the waves." The company says it has recently won two Navy contracts, to be announced in coming weeks.
By the numbers: At $18 million, the round sits in the roughly 48th percentile by size — mid-scale for a Series A rather than a headline-grabbing raise, signalling investor confidence without an outsized bet.
The signal: Money is flowing into maritime defence as governments scramble to close intelligence gaps beneath the surface. Andrenam's raise reflects a broader push toward distributed, unmanned sensing networks — and investor appetite for hardware-plus-software plays aimed squarely at the Navy.
Read more: Tectonic Defense
