$175m · Series B · Defence, Transportation · London, UK
Kraken Technology Group has raised a $175m Series B led by DTCP at a $1bn valuation. The round will fund development of its uncrewed maritime platforms and payloads while expanding local manufacturing capacity across international markets.
Autonomous vessels need a manufacturing strategy
Kraken designs high-speed uncrewed surface and subsurface vessels for defence, security and critical-infrastructure missions. Its challenge is not only autonomy software: the boats, powertrains, payload integration and composite structures must operate reliably in rough water and be produced close enough to customers to satisfy security and supply-chain requirements.
The company says the past year brought contracts from the UK Ministry of Defence, NATO European partners and US Special Operations Command, with systems deployed in active conflicts. It has paired that demand with manufacturing partnerships involving Rheinmetall in Germany, Anduril in the US and Davie Shipbuilding in Canada.
That local-production model is central to the financing case. Defence buyers want sovereign or allied manufacturing capacity, while an uncrewed fleet only becomes operationally useful when units can be produced, maintained and adapted at scale. The Series B gives Kraken capital to spread production without building every overseas facility alone, using industrial partners to shorten the route from contract to deployment.
A large round for a capital-intensive defence category
DTCP led the financing, joined by the British Business Bank, NATO Innovation Fund, Rheinmetall, Inocea Group, HICO, Thesiger Capital Group, BOKA Capital, Supernova Invest and Hakluyt Capital. Earlier investors including NIF, the UK's National Security Strategic Investment Fund, SmartCap, Notion Capital and Speedinvest converted prior instruments into equity as part of the round.
The investor mix reflects the operating requirements of maritime defence. Venture capital can finance product development, but strategic and state-backed investors can also connect Kraken to procurement systems, industrial capacity and allied markets. Rheinmetall and Inocea sit on both sides of that equation as backers with manufacturing relevance.
Kraken now has a unicorn valuation and substantial expansion capital, but the execution test remains physical: translate partnerships and contracts into repeatable vessel output across multiple jurisdictions. Its advantage will depend on whether a modular platform and distributed manufacturing network can deliver lower-cost maritime capacity faster than traditional shipbuilding cycles.
Sources checked:
Kraken Technology Group · Kraken company profile · Tech.eu Funding Explorer
