Albacore raises $6.5M seed for undersea loitering munitions targeting Indo-Pacific threats

Summary

Albacore, a Philadelphia-based undersea loitering munitions startup, has closed a $6.5M seed round led by Outlander VC, with participation from D3 (a drone-focused fund with US and Ukraine investments that has also backed Niras), Brave Capital (founded by ex-In-Q-Tel personnel), R-squared (a national security fund whose managing partner is a Navy SEAL commander and Rhodes Scholar serving on multiple national security councils), and Group, a New York-based defense-focused fund that recently backed Mock Industries. The company is a Y Combinator alumnus.

Founded by Dante (last name not disclosed) and co-founder John (identity withheld), Albacore is building autonomous undersea loitering munitions purpose-built for the Indo-Pacific theater. The core product is a two-man-portable vehicle capable of carrying a 250-pound explosive payload, sufficient, per the company's claims, to cause severe damage to a large surface vessel or sink a submarine. Target performance specs are 30 days of endurance and 1,000 nautical miles of range, figures the founder contrasts directly against the Dive LD platform from Anduril, which he characterizes as sub-week endurance and a few hundred nautical miles at significantly greater vehicle weight. Notably, the founders of Dive — Sam Rutzon and Bill Lebow — are early investors in Albacore, suggesting the companies view their missions as complementary rather than competitive. Dive is focused on deep-water survey operations; Albacore is explicitly building systems that detonate.

The founder's background is in battery technology for high-performance aerospace and defense applications, which he traces directly to the endurance constraints that define undersea drone operations. The concept emerged from conversations about the "tyranny of distance" in the Pacific and the absence of any existing long-range, semi-autonomous undersea strike capability.

On the path to revenue, Albacore is pursuing a multi-vector government engagement strategy. The team began lobbying Congress within its first months of operation before transitioning to a lobbying firm. Current focus areas include SOCOM, the Defense Autonomy Working Group, and flush funds available through IndoPaCom. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) is also cited as a meaningful commercialization route, with the implicit benefit of enabling battlefield testing and higher production scale. The current administration's procurement posture, described as moving faster than traditional program-of-record cycles, is framed as a structural tailwind.

The company is headquartered at the Pennovation Center in Philadelphia, the same facility where Ghost Robotics — maker of military robot dogs — was founded. The location is positioned as advantageous for proximity to Washington DC, access to engineering and industrial talent, and adjacency to brackish water for testing. The broader ambition includes helping re-industrialize Philadelphia's maritime and shipbuilding base.