Shield AI, a defense tech startup valued at $2.8 billion, has agreed to buy Sentient Vision Systems for an undisclosed sum.
Melbourne-based Sentient has developed AI-enabled edge solutions that detect and identify small objects in real time. The company employs about 50 people and will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Shield AI. The deal boosts Shield AI’s total employee headcount to about 750, a spokeswoman told Fortune. Pending Australian regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in four to six weeks, according to Brandon Tseng, Shield AI’s cofounder and president.
In August, Sentient and Shield AI announced the joint development of Sentient Observer, a wide-area motion-imagery solution that uses ViDAR, Sentient’s AI system. The technology, similar to radar but using cameras, “gives [aircraft] the ability to detect targets of interest with just a couple pixels of information coming from that camera,” said Tseng, a former Navy SEAL.
An aircraft that could typically search 300 square nautical miles per hour can search up to 2,000 using Sentient Observer. The technology lets an aircraft see “very, very large areas at any given moment in time,” Tseng told Fortune. The companies are working together to integrate the technology onto V-BAT, Shield AI’s series of drones, with plans to fly the upgraded drones later this year.
The startup’s AI pilot enables aircraft and drones to operate autonomously. Its first product, Hivemind, enables aircraft to operate and complete missions without remote operators or GPS. Hivemind has been used to fly jets, three quadcopters, and a landing drone.
Shield AI’s mission is to “protect service members and civilians with artificial intelligence systems,” Tseng said. “In pursuit of that, we’re building the world’s best AI pilot.”
‘We do think about it’
Tseng cofounded Shield AI in 2015 with his brother, Ryan, and Andrew Reiter. Ryan Tseng, Shield AI’s CEO, is also the founder and ex-CEO of WiPower, a wireless charging company that was sold to Qualcomm in 2010. Reiter, a Shield AI technical fellow, spent five years at Draper Laboratory, a nonprofit advanced engineering company in Cambridge, Mass., where he helped develop visual-inertial guidance systems.
The startup says it isn’t looking to replace big-time manufacturers like Boeing or Airbus, but instead wants to work with them, Tseng explained. Shield AI wants to put its AI pilot in their aircraft so jets can navigate without GPS, without communications. “For us, it’s about putting the AI pilot on more and more aircraft,” he added.
By focusing on AI-based flight, Shield AI has something to offer for defense, security, and general aviation purposes, said Brian Smiga, a cofounding partner at Alpha Partners, a venture firm that’s invested in the startup. “Shield AI is doing the same thing for flying that Tesla is doing for self-driving cars,” Smiga added.
Shield AI has raised $1.1 billion, according to Crunchbase. Other investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Point72 Ventures, and Breyer Capital. In December, Shield AI was valued at $2.8 billion after raising $500 million, including $300 million in equity.
The San Diego–based startup has told investors that it expects to produce nearly $750 million in annual sales and $100 million in profit by 2026, according to the New York Times.
Many are expecting Shield AI to go public, but the timing remains unclear. Right now, Tseng told Fortune, the company’s focus is on scaling its business.
“We do think about it,” he said. “An IPO is definitely an option in the next couple of years, but it’s not something that we are squarely focused on right now.”
