Gander Robotics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based defense and dual-use robotics startup, has emerged from stealth after raising $1.1 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate the development of its Autonomous Rescue Swimmer, an AI-enabled underwater vehicle designed to improve survival rates in maritime man-overboard emergencies. The financing round was co-led by Impellent Ventures and Underscore VC. The company said the capital will be used to expand engineering efforts, advance prototype development, and prepare for testing with military, coast guard, and commercial maritime organizations.

Founded by U.S. Navy veteran Michael Autery and robotics engineer Lael Ayala, Gander Robotics is focused on one of the maritime industry’s most persistent safety challenges: locating and stabilizing people who fall overboard before rescue teams can arrive. According to the company, current rescue procedures often depend on human spotters, rescue swimmers, and manual search operations, resulting in survival rates of approximately 28% for U.S. Navy personnel and 17% for cruise ship passengers involved in man-overboard incidents. Gander believes autonomous systems can dramatically reduce response times during these life-threatening situations.

The company’s flagship product, the Autonomous Rescue Swimmer (ARS), is a hand-throwable autonomous underwater vehicle that can be launched from ships, helicopters, small boats, piers, or shorelines without requiring specialized infrastructure. Once deployed, the system uses sonar and AI-enabled object detection to locate individuals in the water and autonomously navigate toward them. The vehicle is designed to deliver flotation support while transmitting the victim’s location to rescuers, buying valuable time until human recovery teams arrive.

Gander Robotics says its platform has been designed with scalability and operational flexibility in mind. Built primarily from commercially available components, the Autonomous Rescue Swimmer can be manufactured at scale while remaining modular enough to accommodate mission-specific payloads and future upgrades. The company also emphasizes compatibility with existing U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and commercial maritime rescue procedures, enabling organizations to integrate the technology into current emergency response operations without requiring major procedural changes.

Chief Executive Officer Michael Autery, who spent more than 15 years in the U.S. Navy, said the idea for the company emerged from firsthand experience with the dangers of maritime operations. After studying survival statistics for man-overboard incidents, he concluded that current rescue approaches leave too much to chance and that advances in robotics and artificial intelligence could significantly improve rescue outcomes. Together with Ayala’s robotics expertise, the founding team developed the concept for an autonomous rescue platform capable of responding within seconds rather than minutes.

The company traces its origins to the MIT Sloan School of Management, where Autery refined the business concept while participating in entrepreneurship programs. Gander Robotics gained additional visibility after winning both the grand prize and the Audience Choice Award in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, achievements that helped validate the commercial potential of its technology and attract investor interest. The startup has also engaged with advisors and stakeholders across the defense and maritime sectors as it continues product development.

The pre-seed investment reflects growing venture capital interest in defense technology and autonomous systems designed to address operational challenges beyond traditional combat applications. Investors backing Gander Robotics believe artificial intelligence and robotics can improve safety, reduce response times, and support personnel operating in demanding maritime environments. By focusing on life-saving autonomy rather than offensive capabilities, the company is targeting a segment of the defense technology market where commercial, government, and humanitarian interests overlap.

With the new funding, Gander Robotics plans to continue refining the Autonomous Rescue Swimmer through engineering development, testing, and customer engagement. The company intends to work closely with naval organizations, coast guards, and commercial fleet operators to validate the system under real-world operating conditions while expanding its engineering team and accelerating product readiness. Future development will focus on enhancing autonomous navigation, improving detection capabilities, and strengthening integration with existing maritime search-and-rescue workflows.

As autonomous technologies become increasingly important across defense and public safety applications, Gander Robotics believes its platform can help modernize maritime rescue operations while addressing a longstanding gap in emergency response. Backed by Impellent Ventures and Underscore VC, the company aims to establish autonomous rescue systems as a standard component of naval, coast guard, and commercial maritime safety operations, providing first responders with new tools capable of reaching victims faster when every second can determine the outcome of a rescue mission.

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