San Francisco-based defense startup Mara has raised $7 million in a pre-seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Palmdrive, Protagonist, Freedom Fund, Indicator Fund, and angel investors, as Vestbee was informed.
- Founded in 2024 by Daniel Kofman and Sriram Raghu, Mara develops autonomous counter-drone systems designed to protect military personnel, vehicles, and critical infrastructure from small FPV drones and drone swarms.
- The company’s flagship product, Spike, combines Spotter, a multi-sensor detection and tracking system, with Seeker, a small autonomous kinetic interceptor designed to engage incoming drones.
- Mara says Spike is designed to provide 360-degree coverage and handle multiple threats simultaneously, with applications ranging from protecting individual squads and convoys to securing military bases and other critical infrastructure.
- The company has conducted field testing with US military and special operations units, while Ukrainian forces recently operated Spotter near the front line. Mara is also running a civilian pilot at a South Korean port.
Details of the deal
- The new funding will support Spike’s deployment and production scale-up, with ground-mounted systems targeted for deployment by the end of 2026 and vehicle-mounted and man-portable versions planned for 2027.
