Blue Water Autonomy CEO & Co-founder Rylan Hamilton
At GV, we’re founder-focused to our core and privileged to partner with generational founders who build platforms that redefine markets. Leading a Series A round is a significant commitment; it reflects our deep conviction in a founder, a market, and a business we’ll champion for the long term — often when the opportunity seems unconventional or contrarian (like betting on autonomous naval platforms in a crewed-ship era). We lead these rounds to collaborate with world-class founders in creating consequential platforms that shape the future.
I’m energized by partnering with founders who fuse relentless execution with contagious ambition and a vision to reshape the world. Founders whom I’ve backed at the Series A include luminaries like Marc Lore (Wonder), Chris Lattner (Modular), and Alex Gallego (Redpanda). Their lived experiences have forged them into some of the most driven, caring, capable, and perseverant leaders I’ve known. Despite operating in vastly different domains, each pursues an ambitious vision for a world-changing platform with an uncompromising focus on execution and detail.
Rylan Hamilton’s vision for Blue Water Autonomy is another rare and transformative opportunity, and I’m honored to lead this Series A. As a U.S. Navy veteran and seasoned robotics entrepreneur, Rylan is an inspiring leader driving the creation of next-generation autonomous naval ships.
Most investor-founder relationships begin with a call and evolve through walks, meals, and meetings — an intense courtship to assess capabilities, capacities, and resilience under pressure. With Rylan, our experience together spans nearly two decades, forged on the first day of grad school as we stood in line to check in. Both former military officers and married to remarkable lifelong partners, we connected instantly. Rylan stood out, cradling a days-old newborn yet exuding an authentic “this is going to be tough, but we’ve got this” confidence — a defining trait of his leadership through complexity and adversity that endures to this day.
Blue Water Autonomy stands out with its full-stack approach, crafting ships from the keel up for seamless autonomy, not merely retrofitting existing hulls.
It was a privilege to hire and work alongside Rylan at Kiva Systems, where I saw his knack for rallying teams around a clear mission firsthand. He earned a reputation as a customer-obsessed leader, diving in with a hands-on mindset — often living weeks onsite at remote warehouses to ensure Kiva’s $10 million dollar robotic systems exceeded customer expectations. Rylan blended inspiring mission focus with a relentless drive to solve complex problems. He was key to Kiva’s acquisition by Amazon and its subsequent transformation into Amazon Robotics. Later, I watched him found and launch 6 River Systems, steering it to a remarkable $450 million acquisition by Shopify.
Having the good fortune to partner with incredible founders building consequential companies has reinforced what I learned as a young military officer: exceptional leadership is forged, not born, through hard-won experience. Rylan’s naval service as a Surface Warfare Officer piloting ships through the Persian Gulf and industry tenure as an autonomy entrepreneur have shaped him into a formidable leader, uniquely equipped to pioneer the next frontier in unmanned surface vessels (USVs).
Blue Water Autonomy is redefining naval capability with medium-sized, autonomous ships—built for speedier production, seamless upgrades, and lower operating costs than traditional crewed warships. Their mission is to enable defense partners to deploy more ships, faster, without sacrificing capability. The team consists of veterans from the U.S. Navy, Amazon Robotics, iRobot, and DARPA, blending decades of operational know-how with pioneering robotics and software expertise, delivering unmatched credibility and innovation at scale.
Blue Water Autonomy stands out with its full-stack approach, crafting ships from the keel up for seamless autonomy, not merely retrofitting existing hulls. This enables superior cost efficiency, robust redundancy, and rapid iteration. Designed for multi-mission versatility, their ships feature open, modular payload bays, accommodating everything from reconnaissance to mine countermeasures. Customers can swap sensors and systems in hours, not months, with an “over-the-air updates for ships” model that swiftly transforms fleet feedback into cutting-edge capabilities.
Many have already felt the transformative power of autonomous transportation — whether summoning a Waymo, engaging Tesla autopilot, or receiving a Zipline delivery — yet its potential to reshape our world is just beginning to emerge. Rylan’s passion for this frontier in autonomy was forged in autonomous robotics at Kiva Systems and 6 River Systems. With geopolitical tensions and global logistical complexities intensifying, open-ocean autonomy offers great opportunity, addressing the U.S. Navy’s urgent need for a more distributed, agile fleet. Just as SpaceX frees NASA to prioritize payloads over transport, Blue Water empowers the U.S. Navy to efficiently focus its resources where they matter most over the coming decades.
Blue Water Autonomy is engineering ships that enable missions beyond the reach of smaller vessels, bridging a vital gap between short-range USVs and large-scale naval programs. With global demand for autonomous maritime solutions soaring, Blue Water is positioned to not only compete but to lead-defining industry standards, shaping policy, and setting operational benchmarks for autonomy at sea.
We’re leading this Series A because we believe Blue Water Autonomy will redefine naval autonomy and emerge as a pivotal force advancing American innovation and global competitiveness. I’m honored to join their board of directors and can’t wait to see what this remarkable team achieves.