Marine technology company RAD has closed a £4.4 million funding round to accelerate the commercialisation of its autonomous vessel technologies for defence and commercial applications.
The investment round was led by Mercia Ventures.
Launched in May 2026, the company’s Axon vessel systems architecture is designed to enable the rapid development, integration, and deployment uncrewed vessel capabilities while maintaining flexibility over autonomy and third-party software providers.
“Autonomous marine systems are moving rapidly from concept to deployment, and the response to our Axon launch confirmed that RAD is well placed to capture this opportunity,” said Rich Daltry, Co-CEO and Founder of RAD.
“We believe the industry is moving towards open, flexible vessel architectures that allow systems, autonomy software and mission applications to evolve independently. This funding gives us the runway to scale commercially, grow our electric propulsion systems portfolio and expand into key international markets.”
The company has recently appointed its first US-based employee to build its presence internationally and intends to expand its applications engineering and delivery capability to support defence and commercial customers.
“We watched electrification reshape road transport over the last decade. Marine is about to go through the same shift, and RAD is building the platform for it for manned and autonomous vessels alike,” said Ruth Coleman, Investment Manager at Mercia Ventures.
