Aurelius Systems, a startup that builds autonomous laser systems designed to shoot down drones, has closed a $40 million Series A round. The San Francisco company, co-founded by CEO Michael LaFramboise and CTO John Marmaduke, develops a platform called Archimedes that uses high-power lasers and artificial intelligence to detect, track, and destroy aerial threats without a human operator.
Cheap drones have become a serious military problem. Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown how small, inexpensive unmanned aircraft, sometimes costing just a few hundred dollars each, can overwhelm air defenses built around missiles that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per shot. The numbers tell the story. In 2026, Ukraine plans to produce seven million military drones, nearly double the four million it built in 2025. The U.S. Department of Defense has launched its own Drone Dominance initiative to field hundreds of thousands of unmanned systems. Meanwhile, the global counter-drone market was valued at roughly $1.81 billion in 2025 and is projected to more than triple by the end of the decade, growing at a compound annual rate of around 26 percent.
The round was co-led by Draper Associates and KAS Venture Partners, with participation from General Catalyst, Hanwha Asset Management Venture Fund, Outlander, Alumni Ventures, Bravo Victor Venture Capital (BVVC), Detroit Venture Partners, and Decisive Point, among others.
Most existing defenses against drones fall into two categories. Interceptor missiles can destroy targets but cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each, making them impractical against swarms of cheap drones. Radio-frequency jammers can disrupt a drone's signal, but they do not physically destroy it. Directed-energy systems, meaning weapons that use high-powered laser beams, work differently. They operate at the speed of light and cost roughly the price of electricity per shot.
Aurelius built Archimedes to fill that gap. The platform pairs high-power lasers with sensors and AI software that can identify and engage drones on its own. No one needs to sit behind a screen. When several Archimedes units are placed together, they form a connected defense network that can cover a wide area continuously.
"The rapid growth of autonomous systems has far outpaced our ability to defend against them, and Aurelius is closing that gap with a defensive laser system that protects both troops and infrastructure without escalation. Michael is a uniquely talented and committed founder, and we are continually impressed by how quickly he is driving the company forward to deliver this critical capability." — Julian Handel, Partner at KAS Venture Partners
A large portion of the funding will go toward continued engineering work on the Archimedes platform, including expanded testing. The company also plans to invest heavily in manufacturing, bringing more of its supply chain in house to reduce dependence on outside suppliers for key components. Additional capital will support the broadening of its product lineup and expansion into new markets.
Aurelius currently has 19 employees. It expects to more than double that number by the end of 2026, reaching over 40 people across engineering, production, and operations.
Partnerships are also part of the plan. Aurelius recently announced an integration deal with American Rheinmetall, a defense contractor, to deploy the Archimedes platform on robotic combat vehicles. The company has tested its technology at military exercises including Operation Jailbreak, where it demonstrated that Archimedes could work with existing command-and-control systems, and the Technology Readiness Experimentation (T-REX) 26-2 event.
Michael LaFramboise and John Marmaduke founded Aurelius Systems in 2024. LaFramboise is a Columbia University graduate and U.S. Navy veteran who previously worked in R&D and technical sales at Coherent, one of the largest laser manufacturers in the United States. That experience gave him a close look at the components that go into high-power laser weapons. Marmaduke serves as chief technology officer. The company is headquartered in San Francisco.
So what is Archimedes, exactly? Think of it as a compact, portable laser turret run by software. It uses optical sensors paired with machine learning, a form of AI that gets better with use, to spot and identify incoming drones automatically. Once it locks onto a target, it fires a high-power laser beam to disable or destroy it, typically within seconds. The unit is small enough to mount on a vehicle or set up at a fixed location, and it is built with commercially available parts to keep costs down and production moving quickly.
"This investment marks the next phase of Aurelius' growth as we continue to advance Archimedes, accelerate manufacturing readiness and expand the capabilities we deliver to the defense ecosystem. The increased use of coordinated drone threats has fundamentally changed the definition of 'readiness,' which is why we developed a scalable platform built for speed, volume, and the economics of today's operating environment to protect the people, assets, and infrastructure that matter most." — Michael LaFramboise, CEO and Co-Founder of Aurelius Systems
The company says its approach differs from that of larger defense contractors by focusing on simplicity. Instead of pursuing expensive, research-heavy designs, Aurelius uses proven components from the industrial and automotive sectors to lower the cost of its systems and speed up delivery.
The round was co-led by Draper Associates, a Silicon Valley venture firm, and KAS Venture Partners. Other participants included General Catalyst and Hanwha Asset Management Venture Fund.
Before this Series A, Aurelius had raised smaller sums. It secured $2.1 million in an initial round in July 2024, followed by $1.25 million from investor Naval Ravikant in October 2024. The company also received a Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) award through a U.S.–Singapore joint challenge focused on counter-drone systems.
"Aurelius has consistently demonstrated its ability to execute, from validating its technology to building partnerships that expand the deployment of modern counter-drone capabilities. We believe the company is redefining how autonomous directed-energy systems are developed and deployed to address the rapidly evolving drone threat landscape. This investment reflects our confidence in the team's technical expertise and vision, and our belief that Aurelius is crucial to protecting not only U.S. warfighters abroad but also the homeland." — Andy Tang, Partner at Draper Associates
