Australian defence know-how startup Breaker has raised $9 million in Seed funding.
The elevate was led by US VC Bessemer Venture Partners, with help from present backer Main Sequence, which led 2025’s $2m pre-Seed practically 12 months in the past. The startup, which emerged out of the UNSW Founders Defence 10X program in 2023, now has a US HQ in Austin, Texas.
The brand new money will likely be deployed on the event and adoption of the Sydney startup’s AI agent software program.
Breaker’s platform lets army operators coordinate groups of as much as 100 autonomous programs throughout air, land and sea with their voice.
Founders Matthew Buffa, Michael Irwin, and Vanja Videnovic, had been former Anduril, Droneshield and Hargrave Applied sciences engineers.
Buffa, the co-CEO, mentioned operator bottleneck is among the Australian Defence Power’s most costly functionality gaps.
“Right this moment, autonomy nonetheless means one operator controlling one robotic, with distant controls or laptops, which considerably limits the variety of autonomous programs that may be deployed,” he mentioned.
“With our tech, a single human operator merely talks to the fleet of autonomous programs over the radios they already carry. The onboard AI agent in flip responds with real-time, context-aware responses, translating operator’s intent into machine motion. This enables operators to remain targeted on their mission, whether or not driving a truck or flying a helicopter.”
Robotic orchestration
The effectiveness of drones as a army weapon has come to the fore in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Whereas low cost drones as bombers, piloted by Ukraine troopers, have been used to devastating impact in opposition to the Russia’s expense army equipment, it’s nonetheless a one-at-a-time battle.
Buffa says the subsequent frontier is orchestration – handle and coordinate robotic groups at velocity, at scale and underneath stress.
“Breaker’s software program modifications the operator-to-robot ratio – turning small groups into drive multipliers. Robots turn into real teammates that perceive and ship on the mission,” he mentioned.
The startup’s software program runs completely onboard every robotic, while not having cloud connectivity or exterior networks. That’s important in what the army calls a “denied atmosphere” – when communications are jammed or denied,. The Breaker brokers proceed working autonomously, making mission-aligned selections.
Bessemer associate David Cowan mentioned Breaker’s on-robot brokers will redefine how militaries deploy and handle autonomous programs.
“By enabling small groups to soundly management giant numbers of robots via intuitive, pure language interfaces, Breaker is tackling one of many hardest and most vital issues in defence know-how,” he mentioned.
Armoured automobile demo
Breaker’s AI agent software program was not too long ago put in within the mission programs of German producer Rheinmetall’s Boxer armoured automobile’s on the firm Australian check facility. The Boxer is an Australian-made armoured 8×8 automobile utilized by armies around the globe.
Rheinmetall Australia’s Adam Henrichs mentioned the undertaking demonstrated how Breaker’s AI agent will be built-in on the tactical edge in complicated warfighting environments.
“By integrating Breaker’s software program into Boxer, operators had been in a position to process an uncrewed aerial system for ahead reconnaissance utilizing easy, intent-based voice instructions whereas persevering with to function the automobile, with out the necessity for main modifications to the Boxer’s present design,” he mentioned.
“It’s a powerful instance of how collaborative innovation by trade can speed up functionality improvement, and we stay up for progressing this work towards full integration.”
If you wish to see a number of the cool shit the Breaker crew is doing – and it seems to be like Tom Cruise ought to have in Mission: Inconceivable – The Remaining Reckoning, try this video.
